Avatar: Taste the Blood
by Xelskyr
Summary: Dante teams up with the Gaang at Lake Laogai and gets pulled into the war against the Fire Nation. Vergil also has plans of his own, using Azula and the Fire Nation itself for his goals. What impact will the Sparda brothers have on the world?
1. Chapter 1: A Chance Meeting

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 1

**A Chance Meeting**

Okay, here we go. First of all, to all those who've never read any of my other stories before, hello! This is not only my first crossover, but also my first story for both DMC and avatar. I love DMC a lot, and while I didn't used to be all that into Avatar, I had to do some research on it for one of my previous fics, and it sort of grew on me, so I just decided to go through the whole series. It was worth it.

Now, to clear up any confusion that may be caused, I'll get this out of the way now. This story begins in the middle of the "Lake Laogai" episode. Now, as for Dante and Vergil (yes, Vergil), they're already part of the avatar universe (as in they were born and raised there), but they will still be half-demon, and they will still be the sons of Sparda, but I'm mixing a few things up and around here. Most of it will be explained a little later on, but for now, just know that this will be following the avatar storyline, but with incorporated elements of the DMC3 storyline. You'll see what I mean once we get into it a little further. I'd also like to say that I'll try my best to get Dante's personality down as best as I can, but don't be surprised if he's a tad more serious in some parts than he'd normally be. Don't worry thought, the funny and sarcasm is still there.

One last thing before we start, I'd just like to point out that his will be as short as the chapters will get. The rest will be much longer, probably double this size most of the time. Okay, now I'm done.

* * *

A sunny day in Ba Sing Se; clouds floated calmly in the sky, the sun shown down extending its golden rays of light across the land, and the city was alive. However, the focus of events on this day is not in the populated areas of the city, but a bit more remote. Our story begins at Lake Laogai.

"So where's this secret headquarters?" asked Sokka.

Jet scratched the back of his head as he replied. "Under the water I think."

"There's a tunnel right there, near the shore," confirmed Toph, pointing off into the water while the rest of her body stayed stationary. She walked forward, let out a soft but merry whistle, a leaped a short way up before stomping onto ground, lifting up a stone pathway with a tunnel leading downward into the lake at the end.

The blind girl was the first across and earthbent the covering of the tunnel out of the way, revealing its dark depths to her and the rest of her companions. A single ladder led down to a lower levels, leading deeper in the base.

They all stared down anxiously before descending downward.

* * *

Meanwhile, a distance higher on one of the hills overlooking the lake, not far from the group of young adventurers, another lone traveler made his way across the landscape. He was around eighteen years of age, had snow white hair, a red jacket flapping down to his ankles, and baggy pants with heavy boots. He had a large broadsword with a skeletal design decorating the hilt and base of the blade.

He reached the top of the most recent hill, stopped, and sighed heavily in frustration.

"Damn…I never should have left the main road. How am I supposed to set up my shop in the city if I can't find my way there?"

He put his hands on his hips and peered out over the geography before him. It was mostly hill, trees, and grass from here on out until he found his way to one of the cities gates. A lake was sparkling in the sunlight to his right, and he found his eyes wandering down to it.

At first he saw nothing worth mentioning, but on closer inspection, he noticed a group of seven on a narrow stone walkway with a tunnel leading down underground. One by one they descended downward until they were all out of sight.

He raised a curious eyebrow, and smirked. "Hm…I should be heading to Ba Sing Se, but a secret underground base, now that's too weird to ignore."

His grin grew and he raced down the hill with renewed vigor. He covered the hillside in leaps and bounds, sliding down to the walkway, and stopping at the tunnel. It had been resealed by the cover stone. With a swift kick, the slab of rock flipped off the hole, and plopped into the lake with a splash.

He peered down into the darkness, a smirk still plastered to his face.

"Jackpot."

He jumped in.

* * *

Jet peered out from behind a corner and waited for the hallway to clear. When it did, he nodded his head, signaling that the coast was clear. The group headed out into the corridor, Jet looking from side to side as they did.

"It's all starting to come back to me," he said as he cautiously walked down the hallway.

As they passed, Jet looked into a partially sealed room. It was filled with women in identical dresses, an emotionless expression on their faces. A Dai Li agent stood in front of them.

"I am Joo Di, welcome to Ba Sing Se," he recited.

"_I am Joo Di, welcome to Ba Sing Se,_" they repeated in unison.

"We are so lucky to have our walls to create order," he recited again.

"_We are so lucky to have our walls to create order,_" they repeated again.

The group continued on, trying to put the sight out of their minds. They continued on down the dimly lit stone corridors.

"I think there might be a cell big enough for Appa up ahead," whispered Jet.

A few moments later, they arrived at a stone door and they all came to a sudden stop. Jet turned back to them.

"I think it's through here."

They pushed the door out of the way and entered into an even less lit room. It was wide open with a high ceiling concealed in dark shadows. The group slowly stepped deeper and farther into the room, their eyes darting across the room for any sign of movement.

Suddenly the door slammed closed and they all turned in surprise as the majority of the rooms light was cut off, leaving them in almost total blackness. Only a second later, the room was illuminated again, far better than last time. The group looked up at the ceiling, which they could now clearly see was swarmed with Dai Li agents.

"Now that's something different," commented Sokka.

"You have made yourselves enemies of the state," said a voice they recognized as Long Feng's.

They had all turned to face him and stared him down with aggressive glares.

"Take them into custody," he ordered his agents.

At his word, the agents dropped down from the ceiling and surrounded the seven companions. Two agents fired stone fists at them, which Toph was easily able to crush in mid air with her earthbending. With a quick thrust of both her fists, two columns of rock jutted out of the grounds and knocked the Dai Li aside.

Jet sprung into action as well, charging forward at the nearest agent. He fired both his stone fists at the boy, but he used one of his swords to knock them aside, dropped down to slide by him, and used the hook of his other sword to grab him by his ankle and flip him off his feet.

Aang easily earthbent two agents out of his way sending them flying into the walls behind them, giving him ample breathing room. On the other end of the room, two Dai Li launched their stone fists as Katara and Sokka. They both knocked away one fist each, but were caught by a second pair and were being pulled toward the agent who launched them.

Luckily Toph intervened and freed her two friends by created a wall of stone, halting their progress, albeit somewhat uncomfortably for the two water tribe natives. The two agents bent a wave of stone at the young earthbender, but she was too quick and created a stone column that lifted her out of harms way. The two agents followed suit, and at the same time, two more Dai Li ran up the wall parallel on each side of her.

She easily swatted away the first two agents, and the jumped up over the two horizontal columns that the second pair of Dai Li attacked her with. She then felt a sudden tug as a stone fist grasped the back of her shirt and yanked her downward. Jet was able to swing down though, and catch her before the agent could deliver a painful kick, and instead struck a rock jutting up from the floor.

Longshot fired an arrow as the two landed and recovered, and struck an incoming rock, destroying it. Two more rocks flew past him, only to be swatted away by Jet. Three more were fired at him in rapid succession afterward, which he was also able to deflect into dust.

Watching over the battle, Long Feng scowled and decided it was now to make a strategic retreat. He turned tail and ran through a second doorway, then quickly earthbent it shut as he escaped.

Aang flipped down from the air and airbent three Dai Li out of his way. "Long Feng is escaping!" he shouted.

He and Jet ran after him and Aang earthbent the door out of the way, and raced down the corridor. They followed him in hot pursuit until they reached a room with a number of sewage pipes of varying size emptying out into the perimeter waterway that seemed to go on down forever. Long Feng leaped down and closed off the exit with his earthbending.

"All right avatar, you've caused me enough problems. This is your last chance, if you want your bison back."

Aang's gaze narrowed. "You _do_ have Appa! Tell me where he is!"

"Agree to exit the city now," he bargained, "and I'll wave all charges against you and allow you to leave with your lost pet."

Jet raised his swords threateningly. "You're in no position to bargain."

"Am I not?" the earthbender smirked.

"Definitely not!" Aang shouted in response.

"Jet," Long Feng said calmly, "the earth king has invited you to Lake Laogai."

Jet's expression suddenly changed from one of battle readiness, to emotionless and empty, not unlike the Joo Di clones they had saw on their way in.

"I am honored to accept his invitation," he said almost mechanically.

In one swift movement he swung his sword for Aang's head, which he was barely able to duck under and leap away from. Jet, in his brainwashed rage, charged after him. Aang was still recovering from his leap and was sure to be hit with the blades. Just when it seemed like the steel of the swords were about to bite into him however, what could only be described as a miracle occurred.

Someone blocked the swords.

"Man, that was a close one," said a smooth voice.

Aang looked up at his savior. He had pure white hair, a tattered red jacket, equally less than impressive dark pants, large boots, but his sword was what inspired awe. It had an onyx colored blade with a skeletal design covering the hilt and lower blade. The base of the blade was encased in something resembling a human ribcage, and the hilt had a skull with two horns on it, and two bones that looked like femurs hugging the sides.

"Don't take this the wrong way pal," he said addressing Jet, "but attackin' kids with swords ain't exactly the best way to boost your reputation. In fact, in my experience, the ladies sorta look down on it, ya know?"

Jet, in his brainwashed state, wasn't the most responsive of conversation partners, and jumped back a few feet, keeping his swords in an aggressive stance.

Aang watched the swordsman that had saved him casually began flipping his sword around in his right hand, not even looking directly at Jet. It was like he didn't even consider him a threat.

"So, you want a piece of me, huh? Well that's fine. After all," he said, gripping the hilt of his sword firmly and pointing the tip of the blade straight at Jet, "there's plenty of me to go around."

"Wait!" shouted Aang.

The white haired swords man spared him a glance over his shoulder.

"He's still my friend, don't hurt him!"

He scoffed but complied, throwing his blade onto his back where it mysteriously stayed put despite not having a sheath or scabbard of any kind.

"Okay, fine, a handicap then. That should make things a little more interesting anyway. Just don't get in the way kid."

He swiftly shifted his feet back and forth and pumped up his fists. After a few jabs at the air, he got into a final fighting stance and waved Jet over, practically begging him to attack. Needless to say, the brainwashed freedom fighter complied.

Jet attacked with a horizontal slash aimed at his opponents head first, which he easily ducked under. The dual wielder followed up with another diagonal slash with both his swords. The swordsman rolled under both, rose up with heavy momentum, and twisted around delivering a direct kick to the freedom fighters temple.

He flew across the room and skidded over the edge, but threw out his feet and stopped himself from falling. With a strong push of his legs and arms, he flipped back onto safety and raised his swords back up.

Jet charged his opponent head on again, and slammed down with both of his hook swords with all his might. The swords were perfectly aimed, but never met their mark. Aang looked on in awe as the mystery swordsman gripped both blades with his bare hands and was holding them off with ease.

His palms were cut open from holding onto the sharp steel, but he could handle the pain, it was nothing new. With some added effort, he forced both blades down and to the side, all the while keeping his smirk.

"Sorry pal, some back and fight me when you've got some real swords."

With that, he ended the battle quickly, and head-butted him into unconsciousness. They both let go the swords and they clattered to the ground, landing near Jet's unmoving form. After a moment, the standing swordsman exhaled loudly and wiped his hands on his jacket.

"Man that was kind of a let-down. What a bummer," he said, casually cleaning his hands. After he was satisfied with the status of his hands, he turned to Long Feng.

"Well, maybe you'll be a little more interesting. How about it old man, wanna piece to?" he asked coyly.

Long Feng merely grunted and earthbent a column of rock that lifted him up into the until he reached one of the largest sewage pipes.

"Foolish boy, you've chosen your own demise, and you swordsman, I won't forget your face."

He scoffed again and stepped forward. "How about a name to go with the pretty face old man; its Dante."

The old earthbender only grunted and retreated into the pipe, disappearing from sight. Dante remained staring at the pipe for a few moments until he heard footsteps behind him and looked over his shoulder. The same bald kid he had saved was now standing over his friend.

"Is he all right?" he asked.

Dante nodded. "Yeah, just out cold. He'll wake up in a while with a headache."

"Thanks," he replied, and from the way he said it, Dante could tell he was smiling.

Just then the rest of the group made their way into the room after Toph earthbent the doorway out of their path. Dante turned his head again towards the advancing group of teenagers and let out a short laugh.

"You're friends sure got nice timing," he said to Aang in a sarcastic tone.

"Too late kiddies, the parties over; don't worry though, ya didn't miss much. No food, no drinks, no girls, nothing worth mentioning," he said, now addressing the rest of the group. Katara, Longshot, and Smellerbee ran past him to Jet. Only Sokka, Aang, and Toph bothered with Dante.

"So who's this guy?" asked Sokka, pointing a finger at Dante.

"The names Dante pal, and ya best keep that finger away from me and my face if ya wanna keep it."

Sokka frowned and retracted his hand, but kept his eye on the white haired swordsman.

"Hah, I kinda like this guys style," commented Toph.

"I've never heard a name like that one before, where are you from? Are you with the Fire Nation?" asked Sokka.

He shrugged. "Where am I from? Here, there, I don't even know really. I've been traveling so long I've just gotten used to not having a home. Anyway, I don't know about all of you, but I'm outta here, it smells like dead fish and feet."

He was halfway to the door when Aang called out to him. He turned slightly to the boy was at least in his field of vision.

"Yeah, what?"

"Long Feng isn't going to just let you walk away," he warned him, "we've got a plan to stop him, and we could use all the help we could get. Even if you're not interested, if you stay and help, we could give you a ride into the city, and after that what you do is your call."

Dante stopped to think about it. True, he had been on his way to the city anyway before he got sidetracked here, and they seemed to know how to get around or at least from the lake to the city. That Long Feng guy wasn't that much of a concern to him, but getting a free ride into Ba Sing Se was appealing.

"Why not, I'm kinda hungry as it is. Getting to the city and grabbin' some grub would do the body good."

Aang smiled and nodded, then turned to the freedom fighter trio.

"What are you going to do?"

"We'll get Jet out of here, you go get Appa and head back to the city. We'll be fine."

"Right, take care then you guys."

Smellerbee and Longshot both nodded, and returned their attention to Jet. Dante, along with Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph headed out of the room and returned to the dim corridor. They turned a few corners and found a door similar to the one they had passed through, and forced it open, only to find the room also empty. There were six large chains lying discarded on the floor, but nothing else resided within.

"Appa's gone," said Aang, disappointment heavy in his voice, "Long Feng beat us here."

"If we keep moving maybe we can catch up with them!" suggested Sokka.

At that, they turned right back around and headed back into the corridors.

* * *

Several minutes later, a rock jutted up from the water on a different end of the coast and from it emerged the five teens. They wasted no time in running down the rocky edge of the water, trying desperately to catch up to Long Feng. Aang and Sokka looked back, causing the other three to glance back as well, and saw several Dai Li in pursuit of them.

Sokka turned to Aang. "You think we can out run them?"

"I don't think it's gonna matter!"

Up ahead, Long Feng stood with a second contingent of Dai Li agents, and created a large rock wall that impeded their progress along the coast. The action was repeated by the agents behind them, boxing them in.

Dante immediately pulled out his sword again and spun it in his hand anxiously, anticipating a fun fight.

"Alright, looks like this party's finally getting good!"

This earned him some weird looks from the rest of the group except for Toph who voiced her agreement. "Yeah, let's crack some heads!"

At that moment, a white lemur-monkey flew in and landed on Aang's shoulder. Dante looked at the thing with a strange but accepting look, and shrugged. The little white creature began chattering wildly.

"What is it Momo?" asked Aang.

The little lemur quickly flew back into the air, into the light of the sun; only to fly back down a moment later with a giant white flying bison with a gray arrow on its head. The looks of surprise and happiness on his new companion's faces told Dante that, whatever the thing was, it was on their side, so he made no move to stop whatever it was going to do.

"Appa!" shouted Aang happily.

Dante and the other watched as the bison lowered in the air, below their field of view and behind the rock wall, only crash through it in a hail of debris and dust a second later, then repeated the action with the wall behind them, dealing with the majority of the agents.

While they still had the element of surprise, Toph and Aang ran up to the cliffside and earthbent the last of the agents off the wall and into the lake.

A laugh escaped his lips as Dante watched the bison called Appa circle around and land directly in front of Long Feng. He gave the animal a hard look and put up both his fists in a battle stance.

"I can handle you by myself," he growled.

He flew forward and attempted to earthbend with his foot, but was caught in Appa's foot, and was flung into the Lake as well. He spit out the benders shoe before he was embraced by the four younger group members. Aang was especially latched onto the animal and muttered something into its fur that he couldn't hear, but didn't particularly care.

He approached the bison as the rest of the group got off of him, and Appa took in Dante's scent, judging him. After a moment, the beasts tongue extended out and licked him, covering him in a think layer of saliva.

"Perfect," he grumbled, holding up his coat, "I just had this thing washed yesterday."

After taking a few minutes to shake off as much monster spit as he could –much to the amusement of his other four companions- he climbed onto its back and watched as they lifted off the ground.

"So," said Aang, catching Dante's attention, "I think introductions are in order. I'm Aang, and I'm the avatar."

"Avatar, huh? You're a little scrawny for a prophetic savior if you ask me, but hey, beggars can't be choosers."

"Anyway," said the tan skinned girl to sitting next to him, "I'm Katara, and that grumpy bump on a log over there is my older brother Sokka."

"Hey!" the warrior protested, but was silence by the short earthbender.

"The name's Toph Beifong," she said in her rowdy voice.

Dante smirked and leaned forward a bit as he sat cross-legged. "Dante, and I think this is the beginning of one screwed up party."

* * *

As the bison rode off back towards the city, the five were unaware of a pair of eyes that had watched the entire altercation between them and the Dai Li. He was now staring at the city in the far distance; he knew that was where he would be heading.

The figure had white hair and his blue coat whipped in the wind. He held a sheathed curved blade with a black and white diamond pattern hilt and two strands of gold lace hanging limply, being pushed back and forth by the wind.

Once the bison was completely out of sight, he turned and left the ledge, heading towards the city himself.

"I'm coming for you…brother."

**

* * *

DUN DUN DUN!**

**First chapter and Vergil's already in the mix! So yeah, another thing I forgot to mention up top. Even though I'm going by the episodes and adding my own things in, I'll still be skipping things over. This story is about the exploits of Dante and Vergil, and the characters they interact with. **

**Any long sections without scene transitions will nine times out of ten contain Dante or Vergil. I mean, let's face it, I'm not going to describe everything that happens in an episode because without Dante or Vergil there, not much changes. If there is a scene where the two of them aren't present but I think it would change the scene because of what they've already done and how they've influenced said characters, then I'll put it in, but don't get all over me because I left something out. It was probably on purpose.**

**I also realize a lot of you might be wonder why I started smack dab in the middle of an episode near the end of the second season. Well, let's be honest, not much important stuff happens in the first season save for the last...oh, two episodes. Near the end of the second season is where I think the show really starts hitting it's real stride; not only that though, the story starts to mature to. The first season is just a little too innocent for Dante and Vergil to be introduced, but here at the end of the second seasons there's political coups and Aang get's freakin' killed. It was for all of five minutes, but still. **

**There's just a lot more I can do with both Vergil and Dante here than there was earlier in the show.  
**

**That said, review if you please.**


	2. Chapter 2: One Long Ordeal

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 2

**One Long Ordeal**

So, here we are at chapter two. We've got even more of Dante, and a decently action filled battle scene, so that's something to look forward to. There really isn't much that needs to be said at the moment, so there won't be any time wasting here.

Go on and get to reading.

* * *

After an hour long bison ride, the small rabble of five landed on a small island to rest and plan their next move. Aang was reuniting with his long lost friend, while Dante and Sokka sat atop a rock, glancing at the scene.

"Heh, a boy and his…weird flying fur-ball; I'm sure this would be beautiful if it weren't so weird," snickered Dante. Sokka replied with a light chuckle before standing up and approaching Katara and Toph.

"Alright look, we escaped from the Dai Li, we got Appa back, I'm telling you, we should go to the Earth King now and tell him our plan. We're on a roll!"

Katara shot him a skeptical look. "One good hour after weeks of trouble isn't much of a roll."

"She's got ya there pal," commented Dante.

The water tribe warrior looked back at him, then at his sister. "Come on, we can build on it. If we want to invade the Fire Nation when the eclipse happens then we need the Earth King's support."

"Hold up," interjected Dante again, "Eclipse? Invasion? Somebody wanna fill me in here?"

Katara was the first to answer. "Sokka found out that Firebenders lose their bending during solar eclipses, which happens to be very soon. We were going to try and get the Earth Kingdom to help, but now it doesn't seem like such a good idea."

"Huh, losing your bending on a solar eclipse. Poetic justice if I've ever heard it," he mumbled to himself.

"What makes you think we'll get the support anyway? I don't know if you've noticed, but things don't always go that smoothly for our little gang," argued Toph.

"I know, but I've got a good feeling about this. This time will be different."

"Sokka, Long Feng is in control of the city. His conspiracy with the Dai Li is too powerful. I think we should just keep flying and leave this horrible place behind us."

"I'm with sweetness, I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se, and I can't even see!"

Aang chose this moment to hop down from Appa and land next to Sokka, adding his two cents to the debate. "But now that we have Appa back, nothing is stopping us from telling the Earth King the truth; about the conspiracy and the war!"

"See," said Sokka, putting his arm around Aang's shoulder, "Aang's with me!"

Katara saw she was losing ground, and looked to Dante. She was curious as to what his future course of action would be. Was he going to stay and help them, or was he going to go off on his own? "What about you Dante, what are you going to do?"

He gripped his knees and pushed himself off the rock. "Well, I _was_ going to set up a little detective agency in Ba Sing Se, but if those shady kooks are gonna be watching every move I make, I can't very well get good business now can I. I say we bust that old geezer's ass."

"Alright, so Dante's for talking with the Earth King to. The whole reason we even came here was so we could tell him about our plan. We have to try," Sokka urged.

Katara put her palm against her chin and went into a few seconds of deep thought. "Well…I guess if the Earth King knew the truth, then things could change."

Aang and Sokka grinned, and Dante simply stood there, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Well I don't trust the new 'Positive Sokka'. Long Feng brainwashed you didn't he!" accused Toph.

Dante was about to say something when he noticed something had caught Aang's eye, and whatever it was, it was out on the water. He glanced over as well, and made out at least three small ships in the distance. The young avatar ran to the edge of the shore and peered out further.

"That's probably the Dai Li searching for us!" He turned to Katara for her answer. "So?"

She looked down momentarily before returning her gaze to them. "Let's fly."

* * *

Appa bellowed a might roar as they flew through the air above Ba Sing Se. The bison's usual saddle had been confiscated, so the group was forced to ride bare back. That meant hanging onto the fur of the beasts back for dear life until they landed, a mode of transportation none of them preferred. Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but at these high speeds, a grip was hard to maintain, especially on the slim fibers of Appa's ever shedding hair.

"Can we please get a new saddle, riding bare back is terrifying!" exclaimed Toph while gripping the hairs of Appa's back all the tighter and burying her face.

"Where's your sense of adventure kid, this is like the ultimate thrill ride!?" shouted Dante.

"Adventure's fine; life threatening airborne rodeo's are another thing entirely!"

Dante let out a fun loving laugh. "Just think, this party's just gettin' started, I can't wait for the main event!"

Appa then began a descent, and Dante looked over Aang's shiny bald head to see a large palace surrounded by walls and brimming with guards. He couldn't contain his giddy grin.

"There it is; that whole thing is the palace! The Earth King's chamber should be in the center!" informed Sokka.

"We have to be careful," warned Katara, "Long Feng's probably already warned the king that we're coming."

"Why would you assume that? If you ask me, I think we're just gonna sail right and- AAAGH!"

Sokka was interrupted when a giant bolder shot up from the ground and nearly collided with the bison, had it not been for the combination of the animal's instincts and Aang's piloting.

"We're just gonna sail on in, huh!?" shouted Dante.

"What was that!?"

"Surface to air rocks; more incoming!" exclaimed Sokka.

Appa veered to the right and then sharply to the left, avoiding two more of the earthy projectiles. Another came dangerously close to striking a hit, but Aang swatted it into dust with his earthbending. The rock did nothing but shower them in dust and pebbles.

"Nice moves kid!" complimented Dante as another rock whizzed over their heads.

Aang brought forth his staff and knocked yet another one away, splitting it in half. "Thanks!"

With that, the young avatar leaped down to the ground from the bison's head, and brought his staff down on the stone pathway. Using the blocks themselves, he created a wave of stone and knocked away the entire first wave of guards. Appa landed a moment later, and Dante couldn't hold in his excitement any longer.

"That settles it, now I gotta get in on the action, let's rock!"

The read coated swordsman was the first on off the bison and ran straight ahead of the rest of the group, running straight up the stairs, leaving the lower guards to his four younger companions.

"Dante!" called Katara.

He looked down momentarily while a line of guards charged forwards towards him.

"Remember, they're Earth Kingdom guards, they're still on our side! Don't hurt them too badly!"

He waved in response, signally he'd heard her, and then returned to the guards that faced him. They both rose up large statues and hurled them at him.

"Gonna have to do better than that wimps!"

He leaped up and connected with the head of the first statue, pushed off it, connected with the shoulder of the second, then jumped down to meet the guards. The statues were soon crushed to dust by Toph and Aang leaving him to have his fun.

He brought down both his feet and landed on a guard's head, smashing him into the ground. Simultaneously he drew his broadsword, and swiped it low and to the right, smashing the flat side of the blade into the ankle of the guard that stood next to him.

The man was instantly swept off his feet, leaving Dante to grab onto his arm, twirl him twice, the send him flying into a pair of guards that were charging from the left. He then twisted to the side just in time to see a pair of stone blocks fly by his head. By the time he turned to face the newest pair of guards, another rock was sent his way.

"Please, a rock vs Rebellion just ain't a fair fight!" He shouted as he hurled his sword Rebellion forward, spinning like a ban saw, and cut the rock clean in half. Rebellion embedded itself in the stone between the two guards, and meanwhile, Dante caught the two halves of the rock, and threw them both back at the guards at twice the speed they were flying at before.

Both halves struck the guards and knocked him into unconsciousness as well as smashing their noses. He turned to another rock flying his way. He extended his hand and called back Rebellion, and the sword obeyed. The hilt his hand just in time for him to deflect the rock with the broad side of his blade, showering him with nothing but dust.

"And now for my final trick!"

He pulled back Rebellion and held its hilt tight. The blade started to glow in a red aura and the ground beneath him began to crumble as if under some enormous pressure. With a smirk and a yell, he swung his blade forward and a red wave of energy sliced through the rock and collided with another guard. It blew the man back into three other men, all of them propelled halfway across the platform.

A moment later, Dante exited his stance and looked around. There was no one left who could fight. He scoffed and shook his head; it was fun, but he was expecting something a bit more exciting from the palace of a king. He looked over his shoulder when he saw everyone else climbing the stairs to catch up with him.

"Dante, that was incredible, how did you do that weird red slice thing!?" asked Aang in wonder.

"Yeah," said Sokka, a bit more suspiciously, "how _did_ you do that?"

Dante shrugged. "Well I-"

He, however, was interrupted when even more boulder began to fly down from the even longer and steeper set of stairs. Dante brought Rebellion back up into a fighting position.

"And here I thought this was gonna be boring," he said excitedly.

A moment later though, he found himself sliding across against his own will, and Toph took his previous place.

"Outta' my way Pretty Boy, I'll show ya how it's done!" she boasted.

"Pretty Boy?" Dante asked, looking to Sokka, who was standing right next to him.

"She does that to everyone, just go with it."

The swordsman glanced back at the short raven hair girl, and watched her work. She stood with her hands raised as the ground began to shake. A boulder came dangerously close to hitting her, but she stood unfazed. Dante had to hand it to her; the twerp had some major guts.

With a mighty push, the stairs all the way up to the palace smoothed out, and the guards slid down as if on one large slide. Aang and Toph then both separated a good sized piece of the pathway from the rest, and ferried the entire group up the steep incline.

"Seriously, we're actually on your guy's side! Sorry!" shouted Sokka.

When they finally reached the top, two more groups of guards tried to stop them, but were quickly pushed out of the way by Toph and Aang's combined Earthbending. With them out of the way, nothing stop them from entering the palace. Even as they entered the first chamber though, even more guards impeded their progress. Toph quickly dealt with them by pinning them to the ceiling with a number of earth columns.

"Toph, which way to the Earth King!?"

"How should I know, I'm still voting we leave Ba Sing Se!" she shot back.

As Toph dealt with another influx of guards, Dante and Sokka ran into the nearest hallway trying to find their way to the king, but none of them led anywhere important. Though they did just about give one woman a heart attack and caused her to trip over her own dress which, while Sokka apologized for, Dante laughed his ass off.

Toph eventually finished off the last of the guards, and they all began running through the maze of hallways that as the Earth Kingdom palace. There were times when Dante was convinced the building was shifting around, moving hallways to different positions, just to confuse them. How was anyone supposed to find their way around here?

Eventually they got lucky fight with a contingent of guards and finally found a door that was much bigger than the rest. Sokka climbed over some of the debris left over from the fight and saw it. It almost reached the ceiling and was colored green and gold.

"Now that's an impressive door, and it's gotta lead somewhere."

The water tribe warrior ran down the hallway and leaped into the air, delivering a mid-air kick to the thick door. It might as well have been a pebble striking it though, because the door didn't even budge. Dante appeared over his fallen companion with a cocky smirk.

"Not a proud moment for ya pal," he teased.

Sokka gave him an agitated look. "Alright mister super-fighter, let's see you break down the door."

"Alrighty then."

He bent down and grabbed Sokka by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out of the way. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, and I use that lightly, stand back and be stupefied!"

He crouched down a bit before jumping into the air. The only got him about halfway the height of the door, but then his feet began to glow red, and he seemed to jump again, making it all the way to the top. With a mighty thrust, he embedded Rebellion in the top of the right door, and then slid down, the broadsword slicing through the wood like it was nothing but butter.

A moment later, Dante's feet hit the ground and he yanked the blade out of the door. He slung the sword onto back and turned to Sokka with a knowing smirk. He brought his fist back and tapped the severed end of the door with his knuckle and said: "Timber", before the door toppled over into the next room, leaving their way free and clear. Aang and Katara clapped, Toph smirked as well, and Sokka just pouted.

Aang was the first through the breach, quickly followed by the rest. They all rushed forward after clearing the door and prepared for a fight. Their preparations were a prudent precaution, because it didn't take long for Long Feng and five Dai Li to show up and provide a last desperate defense.

"We need to talk to you!" explained Aang.

"They're here to overthrow you," Long Feng contradicted.

Sokka was the first to speak up in their defense. "No, we're on you're side, we're here to help."

"You have to trust us!" pleaded Katara.

The Earth king stood up from his throne and spoke for the first time. "You invade my palace, lay waste to my guards, and break down my fancy door, and you expect me to trust you!?"

"He has a good point."

"That door was kinda cool; bit of a waste for me to trash it in hindsight," agreed Dante.

"If you're really on my side, then drop your weapons and stand down," ordered the king.

The five looked between each other and complied. Aang dropped his staff as Sokka let go of his sword. Toph and Katara canceled their bending and Dante stuck Rebellion's blade into the palace floor, cracking some of the decorative tiles.

"See, we're friends, your Earthiness."

Dante couldn't think of any way to respond to that except to just pinch the bridge between his eyes and sigh. The Earth King was equally un-amused and the Dai Li quickly bound all their hands behind their backs with stone fists.

"Saw that one coming a mile away," muttered Dante.

Long Feng simply stood with a smirk, knowing for the moment he had the upper hand.

"Detain the assailants," he ordered.

The Dai Li glided across the stone and sifted behind them, holding him in place.

"But we dropped our weapons, we're your allies!" exclaimed Sokka.

"Make sure the avatar and his friends never see daylight again," said Long Feng, acting like he hadn't heard them.

"The avatar, you're the avatar?" inquired the king, looking at Sokka.

"Uh…no, actually he is," nodding his head towards Aang.

"Yup, over here!" he greeted, undoing the stone braces to wave then reattaching them.

"What does it matter your highness, they're enemies of the state?"

The king took on a defeated look and submitted. "Perhaps you're right."

While they were conversing, a bear dressed in a ridiculous green getup complete with a hat, came up and sniffed Aang before giving him an approving lick, causing Aang to laugh.

"Though Bosco seems to like him. I'll hear what he has to say."

Long Feng narrowed his eyes, but followed the king's orders and said nothing more. Aang stepped forward to explain their situation.

"Well sir, there's a war going on right now. For the past one-hundred years in fact. The Dai Li's kept it secret from you, it's a conspiracy to control the city and to control you."

"A secret war?" asked the king incredulously, "that's crazy!"

"Completely," agreed Long Feng, trying to keep up the charade.

Aang wasn't deterred though, and kept explaining. "Long Feng didn't want us to tell you, so he stole our sky bison to black mail us, and black mail is the least of his crimes! He brainwashed our friend!"

He turned to the king with a stoic face. "All lies. I've never even seen a sky bison your majesty. Frankly I thought they were extinct."

The king turned and sat back in his throne. "You claims are difficult to believe, even for an avatar."

Long Feng then leaped at the chance to solidify his upper hand. "Your majesty, these hooligans are part of an anarchist cell that my agents have been tracking for weeks. If you listen to them, you're only playing right into your own destruction."

The king lowered his head in thought for a moment before coming to a decision. "I have to trust my adviser."

Aang stood with a dumbstruck look on his face before a Dai Li came and apprehended him again. They were being led away when Dante lost his cool.

"Alright, enougha' this bullshit; don't feed us this 'I've never seen a bison' crap! I saw the big fur-ball bite you on the leg, you've probably got at least a bruise, so show a little leg bud, and then we'll see who's lyin' out their ass!" he shouted.

"How dare you, you vulgar urchin! I am not disrobing!"

The king however, gave what Dante had said serious thought. Meanwhile, Sokka and Aang looked to each other and grew devious smirks. The airbender took in a deep breath, and sent a gust of wind forward and blew away just enough of Long Feng's robe leggings to see the mark where he had been bitten.

"There, Appa bit him!" exclaimed Aang.

"Never seen a sky bison, huh?" mocked Sokka.

Long Feng fought his way out of his upturned robes. "That happens to be a very large birthmark, thanks for showing everyone."

"Well, I suppose there's no way to prove where those marks came from," said the king.

"Of course there is!" exclaimed Sokka.

A few moments later, Appa was herded in from the hallway, knocking away what was left of the kings fancy door, much to his dismay. Appa opened his mouth, and Aang compared the bison's teeth to the mark on Long Feng's leg.

The king nodded. "Yup, that pretty much proves it."

This earned a cheer from the group, save for Dante, who was content with a cocky smirk in Long Feng's direction. One he made sure the old fart saw.

"However, that doesn't prove this crazy conspiracy theory."

Then came the groans, and Dante saw Long Feng flash a grin of his own before reverting back to his stoic façade, for fear of being noticed. Dante clenched his fists; he was getting it now.

"Though is suppose this matter is worth looking into."

It was better than nothing, so they took it. Long Feng grumbled lowly and walked off, his agents following close behind.

* * *

They were now on the monorail traveling through the city. The entire car looked on in disbelief as their king stood before they, riding in a monorail car with them. No one even spoke.

"So this is what a train is like. I didn't realize it would be this…public," he said awkwardly.

"So you've never been outside the upper ring before?" asked Katara.

"I've never been outside the palace," he turned his head and pointed out the window, "now that's the way to travel!"

Outside, Aang was riding atop Appa on level with the train. The king's gaze lingered for a moment before turning back to Katara. "So, may I ask where we're going?"

"Underneath Lake Laogai, your kingliness," answered Sokka, "that's the Dai Li's secret headquarters. You're about to see where all the brainwashing and conspiring took place."

* * *

Some time later, the whole group arrived at Lake Laogai. Toph headed up to the short, and with a stomp, rose the rock from underneath the water. To the dismay of all who had originally been there however, the entry way as gone, leaving only rubble in it's place.

"It's gone!" said Toph, shocked.

"Oh, don't tell me," whined Sokka, pushing his palms against his face, "that's okay, still got my positive attitude."

Katara turned to the king. "The Dai Li must have known we were coming and destroyed the evidence."

"Hm," grunted the king, not convinced, "that seems awfully convenient."

"Well the way I see it," added Dante, "there used to be a path there, but it's all busted up now, so don't that strike you as at least a little fishy?"

The king wouldn't hear any of it though. "Long Feng was right; this is a waste of time. I you'll excuse me, I'm going back to the palace."

The group seemed defeated until Katara had a sudden epiphany. "The wall, they'll never have covered that up in time!"

"Oh yeah!" said Aang excitedly, and jumped after the king.

"What's so important about a wall?" asked Dante.

Katara looked to him and explained. "A few days ago, the Fire Nation tried to break through the outer wall of the city with a huge drill, but we were able to stop it. They'll never have gotten rid of it, so it's sure to prove our claims!"

Dante nodded, and looked up to the king and Aang. From the sound of it, it didn't sound like things went over too well. That's when Sokka intervened.

"If you come with us, this time you can ride on Appa," he bribed.

* * *

The king let loose another yell mixed with fear and a hint of enjoyment, but mostly fear.

"First time flying?" asked Toph.

He smiled. "It's both thrilling and terrifying!"

"I know," she agreed, "I hate it to."

He sat up straighter in the face of the wind. "I have to admit, a part of me wishes that what you're telling me about the war isn't true."

"I wish it wasn't" murmured Aang.

Over the span of the flight from the Lake to the wall, the sun was slowly drifting on a collision course with the horizon, and the sky took on an Orange-yellow glow. Aang looked down as they flew over the massive stone structure, and Aang pointed downward.

"It's still there!"

Sure enough, down below was a huge metallic drill embedded in the rock wall. It was totaled, but it remained in tact enough to know what it was.

"What is that?" asked the king in awe.

"It's a drill," answered Sokka, "A giant drill made by the Fire Nation to break through your walls."

The king continued to look down as the gravity of what he was seeing slowly sunk in. Aang took Appa in for a landing, and they all exited onto the wall. The king looked down at the drill.

"I can't believe I never knew."

The sound of grinding rock suddenly filled the air and everyone looked to the right to see Long Feng rising up from within the wall with two Dai Li accompanying him.

"I can explain this, your majesty. This is nothing more than a construction project."

Dante groaned at the sight of him. "Come on man, what is it with you stickin' your nose in our business? Don't ya have any hobbies? Besides, there's a Fire Nation mark on the drill, explain that ya old codger!"

"Well it's imported of course; you know you can't trust domestic machinery."

Dante had to hand it to the bastard, he already had one foot in the grave, but he was sticking with the lie. At least no one could say he wasn't dedicated. He was, however, screwed.

"Surely you don't believe these children instead of your most loyal attendant."

There was a tense silence, and the king looked between Aang and Long Feng. After a moment, his expression hardened and he looked directly at his 'loyal advisor'.

"Dai Li, arrest Long Feng. I want him to stand trail for crimes against the Earth Kingdom."

The look on Long Feng's face was nothing if not shocked. Dante was doing all he could to suppress a victorious laugh. The Dai Li did as ordered and bound Long Feng's hands and took a hold of him.

"You can't arrest me! You all need me more than you know!" he called as he was being dragged away. Dante finally let out a short laugh and flipped him the bird as he was dragged away. Apparently he saw it, and roared at him in anger before he was finally out of sight.

"Looks like Long Feng is long gone!" Sokka joked. He was really the only one who found it funny, because he was the only one laughing. "Oh man, I've been waiting to use that one."

* * *

Later that night, everyone had returned to the Earth Kingdom palace, and the five teenagers stood before the king in his throne room.

"Thank you young hero's, for opening my eyes. All this time what I thought was a great metropolis was merely a city of fools. That makes me the king of fools."

He pressed his palm up against his eyes. "We're at war with the Fire Nation."

"That's why we came to Ba Sing Se your highness. Because we think we can help you end the war," said Sokka.

Aang spoke next. "We don't have much time. There's a comet coming this summer that will give the Firebenders unbelievable strength. They'll be unstoppable."

"But there is hope. Before the comet comes we have a window of opportunity, a solar eclipse is coming. The sun will be entirely blocked out by the moon, and the firebenders will be helpless."

The king gave him a confused look. "What are you suggesting Sokka?"

"That's the day we need to invade the Fire Nation: The Day of Black Sun."

The king looked away seemingly unsure. "I don't know, that would require moving troops out of Ba Sing Se, we'd be completely vulnerable."

"You're already vulnerable!" argued Sokka, "The Fire Nation won't stop until Ba Sing Se falls. You can either sit back and let it happen, or you can take the offensive and give yourselves a fighting chance."

"And you know what they say, the best defense is a good offense," said Dante.

The king still seemed unsure, and went into deep thought. He stroked his chin, glancing around the room, trying to come to a decision. Suddenly, he grew a grin.

"Very well, you have my support."

With the ordeal finally over, Sokka, Katara, and Toph all put their arms around each other and cheered. Aang hopped into an air scooter, and Dante pumped his fist in victory. Their small party was interrupted however, when a man in green and gold armor entered the room and bowed to the king.

"Your majesty, I apologize for the interruption."

"This is General How, leader of the Council of Five, leader of my highest ranking generals," introduced the king.

The general rose to face the king. "We searched Long Feng's office and found something that I think will interest everyone."

* * *

Now in a private meeting room, a guard brought in a chest with same angular gold design that everything else in the city seemed to have.

"There are secret files on everyone in the city, including you kids. Well, except for your friend in the red coat over there," he said, referring to Dante.

"Files?" asked Aang.

The king read the first one: "Toph Bei Fong", and handed it to Katara. She took it and un-wrapped the seal.

"It's a letter from your mom. Your moms here in the city and she wants to see you!"

At first her expression was one of surprise, but quickly changed. "Long Feng intercepted our letters from home? That's just sad."

"Like I said, the dude needs a hobby," said Dante, peering into the box.

The king pulled out another scroll: "Aang"

"That scroll was attached to the horn of your bison when the Dai Li captured it," informed the general.

He skimmed through it. "It's from the Eastern Air Temple."

Katara leaned over the table with a hopeful look on her face. "Is there a letter in there for me and Sokka by any chance?"

The king double checked, but shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

They both took on a disappointed expression.

"But, there is an intelligence report that may interest you," said the general. He handed them a sealed document, which Katara took. After opening it, she skimmed through it's contents.

"A small fleet of water tribe ships?" she said in disbelief.

"That could be dad!" said Sokka excitedly.

"Protecting the mouth of Chameleon Bay, signed by Hakoda? It is dad!"

After the excitement wore down, the king and the general excused themselves, and let the five of them sit down and talk for a change. Well, Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka were talking. Dante meanwhile was sitting on a couch nearby with his feet up, just relaxing after a hard days work.

"I can't believe it! There's a man at the Eastern Air Temple, he says he's a guru!" said Aang happily.

"What's a guru, some kinda poisonous blowfish?"

"No Sokka, he's a spiritual expert. He wants to help me take the next step in the avatar journey; he says he can teach me to control the avatar state!"

"I just can't believe we know where our dad is now," said Katara, holding up the intelligence report.

"I know what you mean. My mom's in the city, and from this letter is sounds like she finally understands me," said Toph with a genuine smile.

"This is all such big news! Where do we even start?"

"I hate to say it," said Katara, "but we have to split up."

"Split up, but we just found Appa and got the family back together! Now you want us to separate?"

"You need to meet this guru Aang, if we're going to invade the Fire Nation, you need to be ready."

He looked down for a second. "Well, if I'm going to the Easter Air Temple, Appa and I could drop you off at Chameleon Bay to see your dad."

"Someone has to stay here with the Earth King and help him plan for the invasion. I guess that's me," said Sokka, standing up.

"No Sokka, I know how badly you want to see dad, I'll stay here with the King."

He grew a huge smile. "You are the…nicest sister…EVER!"

"Easy there big brother, though you're right I am."

While that was going on, Aang looked over at Dante's resting form.

"What about you Dante. I know you said you wanted to open a detective shop. Did you want us to drop you off somewhere?"

He didn't answer right away. Instead he slowly swung himself off the couch and stood, brushing off his coat. He crossed his arms and looked down at the four other teenagers who all had their eyes on him. (well, you know, except for Toph.)

"Well, the way I see it, this city isn't exactly prime real-estate right now. I don't wanna set up shop in a city that could be invaded next week. Plus, an invasion on the Fire Nation sounds like one hell of a party, so I guess I'll be stickin' with you guys for a while. Besides, you four need me more that this entire city put together anyway."

"Alright, another member of the family!" Aang said happily. Immediately he hoped up and latched onto the older swordsman.

"Okay, seriously dude, stop hugging me," he grumbled.

* * *

The next day, the Earth King came out into the courtyard to see Aang and the others off. Katara was petting Appa goodbye when Aang approached her.

"Katara, I need to tell you something. I've been wanting to say it for a long time."

"What is it Aang?" she asked, completely oblivious to the blush on the boys face.

"Katara…I-"

"Alright, who ready to get going on a men only man trip!" exclaimed Sokka out of no where.

"Aang and Sokka," said the Earth King, "I wish you a good journey. Ba Sing Se owes you its thanks, and we await your safe return."

A guard approached the king. "You majesty, there are three female warriors here to see you, they are fro the island of Kyoshi."

"That's Suki!" shouted Sokka as he was climbing aboard Appa, causing him to lose grip and fall on his back. He quickly got up and rubbed the back of his head.

"You know these warriors?" asked the king.

"Oh yeah, the Kyoshi warriors are a skilled group of fighters, trustworthy to. They're good friends of ours."

The king nodded. "Then we shall welcome them as honored guests."

With that, the guard bowed and departed. Aang meanwhile, was getting up on Appa.

"Aang, wait."

Aang turned around, and was enveloped in a hug from Katara. She let go and planted a soft kiss on his cheek, then finally backed away.

"I'm really gonna miss you guys," said Toph, in an uncharacteristically soft voice.

"Yeah, me to," agreed both Katara and Aang.

Sokka and Dante both stood apart from the hug-fest, but when they caught the attention of the three younger teens, there was really no escape.

"That enough, okay we love each other!" said Sokka.

"Seriously, we can stop now," agreed Dante.

They all got a good kick out of it, and the group dispersed. Sokka and Toph were already on top of Appa, and Katara was standing by the steps, waiting for them to take off. Aang was heading for Appa as well, but Dante stopped him short.

"Hey Aang," he said with a hand on the younger boys shoulder.

He turned around to face the older swordsman. Dante glanced over at Katara, then back to him.

"Keep trying; even I've got rotten luck with women. For now though, do your job and don't worry about it."

It took a moment, but Aang nodded. "Right, thanks Dante."

Dante grinned and nodded, then turned to head back to the stairs to see them off. The bison slowly lifted into the air, the three waved goodbye.

"You three just get back here in one piece!" the swordsman called as he walked up the stairs backwards, "Katara an' me are gonna be back here plannin' the party, but it won't be any good without all the guests of honor!"

They all gave him a thumbs-up, and then the bison was off. Dante smirked, and stayed there for a moment, before heading up the stairs behind Katara.

* * *

Not much later that same day, the Kyoshi warriors arrived at the palace. Dante remembered Sokka mentioning them, and was curious about them. Katara as off at a meeting and Dante wasn't much good at meetings, so he decided to pop in and see who was who. He walked down the stairs of the palace into the courtyard and came to a stop next to the Earth King.

"Oh, hello Dante; you're here to greet he Kyoshi warriors as well I take it?"

He nodded. "I figured since I'm the only one who doesn't know em', I might as well introduce myself."

"Very well then, you're more than welcome."

They both looked down the courtyard and saw three girls in green and gold walking towards the palace. They were obviously the Kyoshi warriors. As they approached closer, the king spoke up.

"In our hour of need, it is our highest honor that I welcome our esteemed allies, the Kyoshi warriors!"

The three had bowed to him, and were now rising up again.

"We are the Earth Kings humble servants," said the lead warrior.

As she looked up at the king, Dante looked closer at her. He noticed her golden eyes and narrowed his own. Gold…wasn't that a Fire Nation trait? Kyoshi was part of the Earth Kingdom, and he doubted she was of mixed heritage; the Fire Nation had never even been to Kyoshi in the last century.

'_Something's outta place here; whoever those girls are, they sure as hell ain't from Kyoshi.'_

**

* * *

Well, there we are, chapter two is finished; another suspenseful ending courtesy of me.** **I hope those of you reading this are enjoying things so far.**

**Go ahead and review!**


	3. Chapter 3: A Dark Collaboration

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 3

**A Dark Collaboration**

Alright, pretty exciting stuff this chapter! Vergil is finally coming into the limelight in this chapter, and good sharre of the chapter will actually be focusing on him and Azula.

Yeah, I'm turning over to the dark side, and I like it. You guys go ahead and read, I'm gonna work on being evil.

* * *

After the 'Kyoshi warriors' arrival, the king invited them into the palace. Dante however, didn't trust the three of them as far as he could throw them. Well, actually he could probably throw them a fair distance, but that was beside the point. Dante decided he would keep an eye on them while they were with the king, just to be sure they didn't try anything.

The king was now sitting atop his throne with his pet bear bosco to his right, while Dante remained leaning against the right railing of the steps leading up to the king. He made no attempt to hide the fact that he was watching the three of them, and that he was suspicious. They seemed to receive the message well enough.

"Look Bosco, the Kyoshi warriors are here to protect us. Aren't you excited?" the king said, petting his bear.

"It's been a tough week for me, my most trusted advisor Long Feng and his Dai Li agents tried to take control of Ba Sing Se from me."

"It's terrible when you can't trust the people who are closest to you," replied the leader.

"Yeah, or the ones right smack dab in front of you," muttered Dante, but somehow, he knew they heard it.

"There is good new though," the king continued, "as we speak the Council of Five is planning an invasion of the Fire Nation this summer, on the day of the solar eclipse."

That was when Dante knew without a doubt, whoever they were, they were definitely with the Fire Nation. It was quick and hard to notice by anyone without a trained eye, but he saw it; her eyes flinched. Just for a second, but her reaction could only mean that they were undercover, pretending to be Kyoshi warriors.

"Really, now that sounds like a fascinating and brilliant plan."

Dante was resisting the urge to draw Rebellion and end them here, but even he knew when a situation called for tact. He could tell that at least the leader was strong, it wasn't something he could see, but he could just feel it in his gut. An all out brawl in the throne room ran the risk of injuring the king, which wouldn't exactly look good. For now he'd let them play dress-up, and be the little barrier that kept them in check and the king out of checkmate.

* * *

At the Council of Five's headquarters, Katara was busy getting a rundown of the plans over the invasion. All five generals were present, and a large table-map cluttered with visual representations of troops explained the plan.

"General Fong's base will serve as the launching base for the attack, in exactly two months, the army and navy will invade the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun," said General How.

Out of no where, Momo swooped in and knocked over some of the figurines over the Fire Nation, and glared at it.

"Or we could send in Momo to do some damage," Katara said with a laugh. None of the generals were amused.

General How lifted up a scroll. "All we need is the Earth King's seal in order to execute the plan."

He used earthbending and slid it across the table to her. "I'll get these scrolls to him right away, thank you General How."

With a bow, she turned to leave with the scroll in hand.

* * *

Late that night in the upper right, the three 'Kyoshi warriors' were settling in for the night in their given quarters, which just happened to be a small mansion. Ty-Lee, Mai, and Princess Azula of the Fire Nation were wiping off the war paint they were forced to put on while in disguise. Azula had already finished and was pacing about the room.

"We have been presented with an extraordinary opportunity girls," she said as she walked across the room.

"What, Mai gets to where make-up that's not totally depressing?" joked Ty-Lee.

"Haha." She responded sarcastically.

"I'm talking about conquering the whole Earth Kingdom," she said as she looked out of the window over the street. Both girls looked at her surprise, but chose to remain silent.

"For a hundred years the Fire Nation has hammered away at Ba Sing Se from the outside, but now we're on the inside and we can take it by ourselves."

"Gosh, you're so confident, I really admire that about you," said Ty-Lee.

"From the inside, we're in the perfect position to organize a coup and overthrow the Earth King. The key is the Dai Li; whoever controls the Dai Li controls Ba Sing Se."

"Quite an ambitious little girl aren't you," came a voice from the door.

All the girls looked over in surprise. There, leaning against the wall to the right of the door, stood a man in a long, elegant blue coat that reached down to the ankles, with a curved sword at his waist. His hair was white as a cloud on a sunny day, and his eyes held an unbelievable amount of authority, not unlike Azula's.

He moved from his position and began walking at a slow but intimidating pace, stopping halfway into the room, next to Ty-Lee and Mai, but looking at Azula.

"Who are you, how did you get in here?" she demanded.

He acted like he didn't even hear her and changed the subject. "You want to control the Earth Kingdom. A lofty goal, one that I normally would not take interest in; this city's fate doesn't concern me, but what does concern me, is who is now involved. I'm sure you saw him today."

"Azula, do you think he means that other cute white haired guy that was with the king today, the one with the really big sword?" asked Ty-Lee.

"That is exactly to whom I am referring."

"Yes, we know of him. He seems to be the only one to suspect us of not being who we claim we are. He has a sharp eye, quite annoying."

This actually earned a chuckle from the swordsman. "Being a thorn in ones side has always been a specialty of my dear brothers."

Azula smirked, finally some common ground. "It seems we both have brothers who are less than appealing."

"Hm, while that may be true, small talk is not the reason I am here. My business is to suggest an allegiance of sorts. I am after something my brother currently holds in his possession, and you wish to overthrow the Earth King, something my brother, as well as the avatar, is sure to attempt to avert. My offer is this; I will aid you in taking control of the Dai Li and overthrowing the king, but in return I wish for you to lure my brother to me."

Azula kept her smirk, and tilted her head. "Interesting proposal; and what if I was to refuse this generous offer?"

"Then I suppose I could reveal your hand to the Earth King, and let the city's authorities handle you."

Immediately Azula began a firebending attack, but before she had even fully raised her hand, the swordsman flicked his sword out of its scabbard just a bit, and suddenly the wood and floor all around her exploded in a flurry of debris and metallic whistles. When it was over, she was frozen and he let his sword fall back into place. Azula even felt a small amount of blood drip down her left cheek.

"Foolish girl; did you really think that barbaric flailing around you call a bending style could defeat me? You have no idea what I am truly capable of. Even my ignoramus of a brother is more than a match for you."

Ty-Lee and Mai looked on in awe; in less than a second, their fearless and powerful leader was reduced to a helpless girl. Azula herself was raging on the inside; she had been defeated so easily, and by someone who couldn't even bend! As much as she hated to admit it, she was currently in check, and knew it was impossible for her to win. Still, this man, whoever he was, had at least earned her respect. Enough respect to make her want to kill him.

"Very well, I accept your terms," she said, finally straitening up, "I believe an allegiance would be most beneficial to both of us."

The swordsman smirked. "Good girl, I'll keep in touch."

With that he turned about and walked to the door.

"I think that if we are to be working together, it would be prudent to know each other's names," said Azula as he reached for the door. He hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the doorknob and swung the door open.

"It's Vergil," then closed the door behind him.

As soon as he had left the room, Azula took a few steps forward, and then looked back at where she was once standing. The walls and floor were completely mutilated, as if struck with a blade a hundred times over. She scowled and marched toward the door as well.

"I'm going to bed."

* * *

Some time later, Vergil had easily found his way into the deepest dungeon in the Earth Kingdom. It was supposedly a very high security facility, but all he saw was trash in uniform. He casually strode down the hallway until he found the cell he was looking for. He peered in and saw the former head of the Dai Li, once a great royal advisor and true commander of the city, now sunken to sitting in a lonely cell.

"My, how the mighty have fallen," he said aloud, grabbing Long Feng's attention. He looked up and saw Vergil's face looking down at him.

"Who are you, what business do you have here?"

"Who I am is of no concern to you…yet at least. As to why I am here in his dank hell hole, is because I know the Dai Li are still loyal to you. I have some very interesting information that you may want to relay to your agents."

Long Feng kept his scowl, but was intrigued enough to want to hear more. "What information could you possibly have that my agents wouldn't?"

"That the princess of the Fire Nation is in the upper ring of Ba Sing Se as we speak. I had the pleasure of conversing with her before coming here, and she has quite an interesting schedule. She is currently under the alias of a Kyoshi warrior, and from what I gather, she is after the avatar, who I understand is also within the city walls, or at least was."

"Where are you going with this boy?" he demanded.

"It's simple really; have your agents bring her here and make a deal. Tell her that you can get her the avatar, which I'm sure under the right circumstances you could, and in return, have her help you regain Ba Sing Se. You see, she has something you have lost, and that is the king's trust. With her help, you could get close enough to the king to overthrow him."

Long Feng laughed but didn't keep his eyes off the white haired swordsman. "What is it that you want in return for all this information boy?"

"Only this; my brother Dante is part of the reason you are here in this prison. He is currently in possession of something I desire. Once you have control of the Kingdom and the princess is dealt with, I want you to bring my brother to me. After I have what I want, you may do with him what you wish."

The older man nodded. "I remember that vulgar rapscallion. Very well boy, I'll go along with this plan of yours. When I have the throne and the avatar is out of the way, you shall have your brother."

Vergil smirked and turned away. "A pleasure doing business with you."

* * *

The next day, Katara was on her way to meet with the Earth king. She was walking through the streets of the upper ring with Momo when she came across a tea shop. She was little thirsty, and a little detour before going to the palace wouldn't hurt.

"What do you say Momo, a cup of tea before we get back to the king?"

The little Lemur chirped in response. Katara headed for the shop for just a quick drink before heading back to the palace. At the door two greeters bowed to her.

"A table for two please," she asked politely.

Just as she was about to be seated through, a familiar voice caught her ear.

"Uncle, I need two Jasmines, one Green, and one Leechie!"

She looked across the shop to see someone she would have rather never seen again, Zuko. His hair had grown out since she'd seen him last, and he was wearing Earth Kingdom attire, but other than that, he was the same. In the kitchen, she was also able to see his old Uncle brewing the tea.

"I'm brewing as fast as I can!"

Fear shot through her body, and her first instinct was to run, and that was what she did. She needed to find Suki or Dante; they'd be able to help.

* * *

Meanwhile, just as Katara raced off to the palace, Dante arrived at the Jasmine Dragon. He hadn't been searching for her, but he was taking a walk and was getting thirsty. The only place nearby was the tea shop, and he shrugged as he looked at it. It wasn't a bar, but he'd take it. He hopped up the steps and two greeters bowed as he approached.

"Table for one," he said, directing it to the greeter at his right.

"I'm sorry sir," she said, "but no weapons inside the shop, it's our policy. You'll have to hand it over to me while you're inside."

He shrugged again and pulled out Rebellion, handing it over. "Be careful, it's pretty heavy."

He let go of the hilt, and the released weight pulled the greeter straight down to the floor. She struggled to even lift the blade's hilt up off the ground as the second greeter led him to his seat.

"The waiter will be here shortly."

He sat down at his table against one of the walls, and leaned back, putting his feet up on the table. After a moment of relaxation, the waiter showed up at his table.

"What can I get you, and could you please put your feet down?"  
He peeked past his boots to see a boy maybe two years younger than himself with messy brown hair and a nasty scar on his left eye that had burned it half shut.

"I'll take a Jasmine tea."

He refused to put his feet down, and he noticed the frown in the waiters face as he left for the kitchen. Dante smirked and laid back, waiting for his tea. He looked around the shop; it had some various works of art on the walls, and a green rug down the center of the floor with a golden dragon running down it. Not too shabby of a place.

"Excuse me young man, but could you put your feet down, the table is brand new and I prefer to have it dirt free for as long as possible."

The voice was rough, but it had a kind and understanding quality to it. He looked past his boots again to see an old man with a long gray beard and braded gray hair. He was in all green, complete with a hat. Unlike the first time, he complied and sat like a normal human being for once.

"Alright old man, since you asked nicely."

The man smiled and set a cup of Jasmine tea down in front of him, then took a seat across from him at the table, his own cup of tea in hand.

"It's really not a problem, but these upper-class customers, they get very antsy when someone well traveled like yourself comes in, you know? I'm Mushi, and I own this shop."

Dante smiled, but in a very Dante-ish way.

"The name's Dante."

"Dante, that's a name you don't hear everyday. Where are you from then Dante?"

He shrugged and took a sip of the tea, which was very good by the way. "A little of everywhere, I don't really got a home."

"Do you have any family in Ba Sing Se?"

"My mother's dead, my father's who knows where, and my brother…well he's probably looking for me so he can kill me, but no, no family here."

Mushi softened his expression. "I'm sorry to hear that, you must have had a hard life."

"Some rough spots here and there, but nothing a good cup of tea couldn't fix," he said, holding up his cup.

The old man laughed. "It's like always say, tea is remedy for the soul."

"Now I got a question," said Dante, "what's the story on sir Scars-a-lot over there?"

Mushi glanced over at his nephew, who was taking orders and brewing the pre-made tea while he conversed, then turned back to Dante.

"That is my nephew Lee. He received that scar from a particularly strong firebender when he spoke out against him."

Dante surveyed the scar again, then scoffed. "That's strange, because to me, the scar looks like it was intended as a method of torture, not a killing blow. I know firebenders, I've fought quite a lot before, and they have the habit of killing anybody who talks against them on the spot, so this was either a very odd firebender, or that story is bullshit."

Mushi narrowed his eyes at the young man, he respected his intelligence, but he was digging too deep for his tastes. He didn't like the idea of throwing such an interesting conversation partner out, but if it came to that…

"Either way, I guess it doesn't really concern me. You're not doing any harm, so even if you are lying you've obviously got your reasons."

Mushi smiled. "I thank you, but if you'll forgive an old man for prying again, I wanted to ask you; you said that you had fought firebenders before. How many have you really faced?"

Dante finished gulping down the last of his tea before he responded. "You ever heard of a swordsman named Redgrave?"

Mushi nodded. Redgrave was an urban legend among the Fire Army. Two years ago an entire battalion of firebenders that had recently taken over a small village on the outskirts of the Earth Kingdom's current border were all but slaughtered. Only two of the five-hundred men had survived and returned to tell the tale.

They couldn't remember what he looked like; all they could remember was that no matter how much fire they burned him with, his skin just kept re-growing. The only detail on him was that he wore a long tattered red coat, and he had sent nearly five-hundred men to their graves in one night. He was never heard from or seen again after that, but the soldiers in the Army aptly named him Redgrave.

"I'm him; does that answer your question?"

Mushi nearly spit out his tea. He was sitting across from the legendary Redgrave and he didn't even know it until now!

"Y-you're Redgrave, the man who single-handedly destroyed an entire elite firebending battalion?"

"Was it a battalion? I don't remember it too well, so you'll have to forgive me," he said, scratching his head.

"If you don't mind me asking, Dante, what exactly compelled you to attack an entire battalion of elite firebenders all by yourself, why take such a risk?"

"That part I do remember, and it's a simple explanation. Short and sweet, they were preparing to execute a little girl, apparently because her parents couldn't pay taxes, but I didn't see her parents anywhere, so that might not have been it. Anyway, I killed the man about to do the deed, then more showed up. By the end of the night, all the soldiers were dead. The town thanked me, but booted me out, though I can see why. One teenager walks into town and kills five hundred trained soldiers, and I'd want him out to," he said with a far off look, like he was staring into the past with his eyes.

"Anyway, nostalgia aside, shouldn't you be back there brewing you tea? Your nephew looks like he's a little swamped."

"Don't worry about him, the exercise will be good for him," he joked.

Dante smirked again. "I don't care what anybody says Mushi, you're the coolest old man I've ever met."

He laughed again. "Thank you my young friend, now, how about I go get us a second cup of tea, and can continue out conversation."

"I like that idea."

* * *

Back at the palace, Katara was gasping for breath by the time she'd made it to the throne room. She ran in with the scrolls in hand, and saw who the thought were the Kyoshi warriors.

"Thank goodness you're here Suki, something terrible is going on! The Fire Nation has infiltrated the city; I just saw prince Zuko and his uncle! We have to tell the Earth King right away!"

Who she thought to be Suki stood up. "Oh, don't worry; I'll be sure to let him know."

It was only when she stepped into the light that Katara saw the golden color in he eyes, and realized her mistake. Before she could even bring out her water to defend herself, Ty-Lee flipped over and pinched the joint between her neck and shoulder, effectively paralyzing her.

The three fake Kyoshi warriors surrounded her downed form. "So, Zuzu's in the city too. I think it's time for a family reunion."

Momo meanwhile, had retreated to one of the pillars, and flew off out of the palace.

* * *

Late that night, Iroh and Zuko were closing down shop, the glow of their lamps illuminating the outside as well as the shop. Zuko was busy sweeping, while Iroh was thinking about all the conversations he had had with the young Dante, or Redgrave as the Fire Nation knew him. He was an interesting boy that Dante, that was for sure.

As he put away the last of the cup and pots, he heard footsteps from the stairs behind him. He turned to see a royal messenger with a scroll in hand; the man bowed and presented him with the paper.

"A message from the royal palace," he said.

Iroh read through the message, and a look of astonishment grew on his face,

"I…I can't believe it."

"What is it uncle?" asked Zuko.

"Great news; we've been invited to serve tea to the Earth King!"

Iroh ran off happily to his tea kitchen, and Zuko smiled at his uncles antics. He really did deserve it. He contently went back to sweeping.

* * *

Late that same night, in the dank hole in the ground that was the Earth Kingdom Dungeon, Azula was being forcibly led through the corridor to a cell at the end of the hallway. When they reached the cell and opened the door, Long Feng sat calmly on the floor, but she also noticed Vergil leaning against the wall to his left.

"What is this about!? Your agents show up in the middle of the night and drag me down here? You will not treat a Kyoshi warrior this way!"

"But you're not a Kyoshi warrior, are you Princess Azula of the Fire Nation."

Just as she suspected, he knew, and she had a good idea as to who told him. Her eyes fell on Vergil. The blue clad swordsman stood calmly, his arms crossed and his eyes closed. What was his game, why make an allegiance with her only to betray her immediately to the Dai Li?

"What do you want?"

"What I want is to make a deal. It's time that I regained control of Ba Sing Se, and you have something I need."

She narrowed her eyes. "Oh?"

"Yes, the Earth King's trust."

"Why should I help you?"

"Because a little birdie told me that you came to this city for the Avatar, and I can deliver him to you."

It was at this moment that Vergil chose to softly clear his throat. Azula glanced over it his direction for a split second, and saw that his eyes were slightly open, and his head gave the slightest of nods. She took this as his signal that he was still on her side, and to just run with Long Feng for now.

She saw what he was doing now. Long Feng still had sway over the Dai Li, and Vergil obviously knew this before her, so he had convinced Long Feng that she was here for the avatar, and that she could help him overthrow the king. Once she was with Long Feng, the Dai Li would be on her side, and she could use her…persuasive nature, to bring them into her favor. Once that happened, Long Feng would no longer be of use to them.

She suppressed a smirk.

"I'm listening."

**

* * *

So, Vergil's in the mix now, and he's teamed up with Azula; I think we're fucked.** **This could make things a bit complicated later on, I don't think Aang's up to the task of fighting Vergil. Looks like it's up to Dante to keep things under control.**

**Reviews are welcome.  
**


	4. Chapter 4: Crossroads and Devils

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 4

**Crossroads and Devil**

Well, so far this story's been kinda light on the action, but that's about to change. If you've ever played DMC3, then you know what happens when Dante and Vergil meet up. Things are about to get good!

* * *

Underground, below Ba Sing Se, Azula and the Dai Li had taken refuge and began planning their coup. Ty-Lee and Mai were there of course, and Vergil had come for two reasons. The first being that he had a deal to uphold with Azula and he respected her cunning mind just slightly enough to follow through with it, and second because he was still pretending to be on Long Feng's side, and he had requested Vergil watch over Azula anyway. Azula was currently addressing all the Dai Li as he and Azula's two annoying friends stayed back.

"The Council of Five do not trust the Dai Li," her voice boomed, "they imprisoned you leader Long Feng and soon they will turn on all of you as well. They will eliminate you. Seizing power today is a matter of life and death."

Vergil almost cracked a smirk; she was playing into their insecurity well. She was almost as good as him.

"This coup must be swift and decisive. The Earth King and each of the five generals must be taken out simultaneously. Long Feng has placed you in my hands while we overthrow the government. If I sense any disloyalty, any hesitation, any weakness at all; I will snuff it out."

She stopped in front of them and put her hands behind her back. "That is all."

With that, the Dai Li dismissed and Azula returned to the platform. Ty-Lee poured tea into a cup and handed it to her.

"Nice speech Azula, it was pretty and poetic but also scary in a good way."

"Yeah," said Mai, "I thought you were going to make that one guy pee his pants."

Vergil walked past the two girls and poured himself some tea. "You were…adequate."

"There are still some loose ends; the avatar, both of our brothers, and my uncle."

"All minor concerns," replied Vergil, "the avatar is still immature and undisciplined; easily manipulated and defeat-able. Your uncle is old, and while experience comes with age, so does physical weakness. Your brother would be an even easier target, and my brother, while the most dangerous of them all, is still only a temporary nuisance. It's only a matter of time before you have your Kingdom, and I have what I need."

As Vergil sipped down some of his tea, Ty-lee and Mai stood some distance away.

"Is it just me, or is Vergil even scarier than Azula?" whispered Ty-Lee.

"Trust me, it's not just you. Remember, he's the one who go the Dai Li on our side in the first place, and don't you remember how bad he freaked out Azula yesterday. I'm not sure he's entirely human."

Vergil had heard every word, and wouldn't you know Mai was exactly right. Entirely human, he was not.

* * *

Later that day, Zuko and Iroh were dropped off at the front of the Earth Kingdom royal palace. The building was grand, with grown, green, and gold outer walls, golden shingled roofs, and the Earth Kingdom symbol over head the entryway. They walked up the path, and Iroh reminisced about his last time in Ba Sing Se.

"Many times I imagined myself here, at the threshold of the palace, but I had always thought I would be here as a conqueror. Instead the Earth Kings personal guests here to serve him tea. Destiny is a funny thing."

Zuko grinned. "It sure is uncle."

As they entered the palace, they were greeted by a guard, who directed them through the palace. They were to be taken to the kings tea house in the palace garden. They were escorted out back and there it was. It was rectangular in shape, with a circular roof, and many shrubs and bushes leading up the white stone walkway.

The pair walked in and sat in the main room. Iroh began pouring tea into an elegant cup, and then waited. Five minutes went by and Zuko was beginning to become antsy.

"What's taking so long?"

"Maybe the Earth King overslept," suggested Iroh.

As Iroh said this, several men in dark green robes and darker hats entered the room and began to surround them.

"Something's not right," whispered Zuko.

"It's tea time."

Zuko looked up, and there stood his sister in Earth Kingdom attire as well, and beside her, a man who looked two or three years his elder with white hair, a long blue coat, and a sheathed curved blade in his left hand.

"Azula!" he shouted.

"Have you met the Dai Li, they're earthbenders but they have this killer instinct that's so firebender; I just love it. And of course, how could I forget my associate; this is Vergil, he doesn't talk much but he's quite clever and deadly when he needs to be."

He merely kept silent, his look suggesting he wasn't even paying full attention to what was happening. Zuko looked over at his uncle, but he was standing calmly and lifting up a cup of the poured tea.

"Did I ever tell you how I got the nickname, 'The Dragon of the West'?"

Azula waved off the comment. "I'm not interested in a lengthy anecdote uncle."

"It's more of a demonstration really."

The old man began sipping his tea, but Vergil saw the glint in his eyes. He was planning something; of course, this was hardly his affair, he was merely here to observe, not to act. Whatever transpired was of no concern of his. His deal with Azula was to give her the Earth Kingdom throne, not settle her petty family problems for her.

So he watched with indifference as the old man suddenly spewed fire from his mouth, created an opening in the Dai Li, and burst through the door. Zuko and Iroh ran down the hallway, dodging Dai Li stone projectiles, and Iroh fired a bolt of lightning through the far wall, creating an escape route for the both of them.

Iroh jumped down first and landed on one of the shaped hedges, then looked up at Zuko.

"Come on, you'll be fine!"

"No," he called back, "I'm tired of running, it's time I faced Azula."

The young firebending walked back into the hallway and stared down his sister. She had several Dai Li behind her, but her swordsman friend was no where to be seen.

"You're so dramatic. What, are you going to challenge me to an Agni Kai?" she mocked.

"Yes, I challenge you!"

She shrugged. "No thanks."

He growled and fired a fireball at her, but the Dai Li rose up a stone slab from the floor and easily blocked it, then fired two stone fists at him, and clamped down on his feet. His right hand fell the ground, and it to was pinned.

He was a sitting duck.

* * *

In the Earth Kings throne room, Aang, Sokka, and Toph were finally back and were asking about Katara. Aang had had a vision that she has been captured and was in danger, but according to the king, nothing of the sort occurred.

"Katara's fine, you have nothing to worry about," he assured them

"But…in my vision, I felt so sure that she was in trouble."

The king put his hand to his chin. "Well, she went to the council of general to help plan for the invasion, she's been off with your friends the Kyoshi warriors, and if she wasn't with them, then I'm sure she was with Dante and last he was here, he said he was going back to your apartment."

"See Aang, she with Suki, they're probably back at the apartment right now talking about make-up or something and annoying Dante," Sokka said encouragingly.

"Okay, I guess you're right."

"Trust me, if anything was wrong, Bosco's animal instincts would sense it."

* * *

Appa landed down on the city street outside the groups apartment, and the three hopped of him and ran for the door immediately. Just as Toph grabbed for the doorknob, the door opened by itself, or at least it seemed that way until they saw Dante on the other side.

"Hey guys, and twerp, 'bout time you got back. We've got a problem; Katara's practically dropped off the grid."

"What, you mean she's not here with you?" asked Sokka in disbelief.

"Nope, come on in, nobody here but me."

The three walked in past Dante, and he closed the door. The house was empty except for them.

"He's right, there's no one else here."

"I went looking for her after I stopped for a drink yesterday, but I couldn't find her. I stayed out pretty late, and then I came back here for some shut eye. Tried again earlier today; still not a trace at all."

"Katara is in trouble, I knew it!"

"Oh no."

"Wait, someone's at the door," alerted Toph. Sure enough, three knocks came from beyond the wooden door.

"Actually, I know who it is. It's an old friend of mine," she said as she opened the door, revealing Iroh, "glad to see your okay."

"I need your help."

Aang and Sokka stared to freak out, but Dante just walked past them.

"Hey old man, funny seein' you here."

Iroh looked over at Dante. "Hello Dante, I didn't know you traveled with the Avatar, you must be a new addition to the group."

He shrugged.

"You three know each other!?" shouted Aang.

"I met him in the woods once and knocked him down, then he gave me some tea and some very good advice," explained Toph.

"I met him yesterday at his tea shop, and we talked for a while before I went looking for Katara. He's the coolest old guy this side of the Earth Kingdom."

"May I come in?"

Both Toph and Dante nodded. He walked in and turned to them with a grave face.

"Princess Azula is here in Ba Sing Se."

"She must have Katara!" concluded Aang.

"She has captured my nephew as well."

"Huh, so sir Scars-a-lot is in trouble too? This just keeps getting better and better," Dante said sarcastically.

"Then we'll work together to fight Azula, and rescue Katara and Zuko."

"Whoa there, you lost me at 'Zuko'."

"I know how you must feel about my nephew," agreed Iroh, putting a hand on Sokka's shoulder, "but believe me when I tell you that there is good inside him."

Sokka pushed the old mans hand off his shoulder. "Good inside him isn't enough, why don't you come back when it's outside him to okay?"

"Sokka, Katara's in trouble, all of Ba Sing Se is in trouble. Working together is our best chance."

Sokka remained silent, but nodded, submitting to the majority support.

"I also brought someone along who might be able to help us."

Iroh opened the door and stepped out onto their porch. The four young teenagers followed and saw a Dai Li tied up and gagged against the wooden railing. Toph quickly used earthbending and rose him up with two slabs of stone. Iroh moved to him and removed the cloth covering his mouth.

He began talking instantly. "Azula, Long Feng, and this strange swordsman in blue are planning a coup. They're going to overthrow the Earth King."

"My sister!" demanded Sokka, "where are they keeping Katara!?"

"In the crystal catacombs in old Ba Sing Se, deep beneath the palace."

Dante stepped forward just as everyone was about to leave. "You mentioned a guy in blue. What does he look like?"

"H-he has white hair, like yours, and a long curved blade. He never talks while the Dai Li are nearby; it's like he always knows where we are. Some of the agents even think he might not be entirely human, he has such a dark presence."

Dante sighed. "Damn it, he is here."

"Who's here?" asked Toph.

"No one, let's get moving."

* * *

Down below the city in the dungeon, Long Feng sat in his cell meditating while conversing with one of his agents. They were discussing the progress of the coup to be, and how everything else was coming along.

"The movements of the Earth King and the generals have been plotted out step by step," said the agent.

"Good, and the Princess is cooperating."

"Yes, more than cooperating actually, she's really taking charge. She's terrifying, but inspirational at the same time. The swordsman is the same; he strikes fear into all the agents, but at the same time instills confidence, like we're invincible if we're near him. It's hard to explain."

With that, the agent turned and left, leaving Long Feng in the dark. Things were getting out of hand from the sound of it. Azula was overstepping her bounds a bit. Luckily, Long Feng had Vergil. Azula was smart, he'd give her that, but it sounded as if Vergil had just as much sway over his men, and he was much cleverer than the princess was.

Yes, with Vergil on his side, Azula was of no consequence.

* * *

A few minutes later by bison ride, the five of them were outside the palace, and Toph had her hand against the ground, searching through the earth with vibrations.

"Well, what do ya know, there is an ancient city buried under there, but it's deep."

With a quick swipe of her hands, she earthbent the first of the rock out of the way.

"We should split up. Aang, Dante, you go with Iroh and rescue Katara and the angry jerk, no offense," said Sokka, apologizing to Iroh as the end.

"None taken."

"Meanwhile me and Toph will go warn the Earth King about Azula's coup."

Sokka and Toph quickly ran off to the palace entrance while Dante and Iroh followed Aang as he pushed more and more rock out of the way. It got to the point after a while that it was getting hard to see, so Iroh was forced to light a fire so they could find their way.

Dante always knew the old man had been lying about being refugees. Them being firebenders came as no surprise either, but there were still some questions he wanted to ask. They'd have to wait though, he had Vergil to deal with, and wherever that Princess was, he was sure to be to. As soon as they rescued Katara and Iroh's nephew, he'd be his first priority.

"So," said Aang as they walked further underground, "Toph and Dante say you give pretty good advice, and great tea."

"The key to both is proper aging. What's on your mind?"

"Well, I met with this guru who was supposed to help me master the Avatar State, and control this great power, but to do it, I had to let go of someone I love, and I just couldn't."

"Perfection and power are overrated. I think you were very wise to choose happiness and love."

"Same here," said Dante, "I've seen first hand what power crazy people get like. Not a great crowd to be runnin' with."

Aang still had an unsure expression illuminated by the fire in Iroh's hand. "What happens if I can't save everyone and beat Azula? What if without the Avatar State, I'm not powerful enough?"

"I don't know the answer," said Iroh, "sometimes life is like this dark tunnel, you can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving you will come to a better place."

At that moment, Aang was able to earthbend the last of the rock out of the way and light shone through. The crystal catacombs shined with light and the waterfall at the far end of the cavern sparkled in their light.

Dante just looked between the two. "Okay, did you two time that conversation or something, because there is no way that was an accident?"

* * *

Back topside, Sokka and Toph had just finished climbing the steep incline of stairs and reached the top of the palace. They noticed someone walking in their direction, but seemingly hadn't seen them yet.

"There's general How," said Sokka.

He quickly dragged Toph behind a pillar to hide. A moment later, two Dai Li revealed themselves and restrained How's arms, then a third dropped down in front of him.

"What's going on here!?" he shouted.

"You're under house arrest."

Sokka peered out from behind the pillar then turned back to Toph. "The coup is happening right now, we've gotta warn the Earth King."

He grabbed onto the back of her collar and dragged her along.

A few minutes later, the two of them reached the throne room and saw the King sitting atop his throne with Bosco and two of the Kyoshi warriors next to him.

"Thank goodness we're in time!" said Sokka, relieved.

"In time for what?" inquired the king.

"Yeah, what are you in time for?"

The Kyoshi warrior flipped over and landed right in front of Sokka, forcing him to lean back.

"Uh…I'm kind of involved with Suki."

"Who?"

The conversation didn't move any further than that; Toph sent her flying with a quick earthbending thrust. She was able to land atop of the thrones high ornaments, unharmed.

"They're not the real Kyoshi warriors!"

The second fake warrior smirked. "Sorry to disappoint you."

She threw three throwing knives, which Toph was able to block with a stone wall, and then pushed it forward at her, which she jumped over. She was quickly knocked aside by a second rock jutting up from the ground though, and immobilized. Meanwhile, Ty-Lee got back in the game and began attacking Sokka with a cheery set of jabs which he was able to dodge.

"Oh, it's like we're dancing together," she said flirtatiously.

"This fight is over," said a new voice.

Sokka looked at the King and saw Azula keeping hold of him. The water tribe warrior was forced to surrender, and Toph followed suit. Ty-Lee quickly jabbed them both and paralyzed them. Momo attempted to fly off but a Dai Li was able to catch him with a stone fist and he too fell to the ground.

Azula then pushed the Earth King away and he was apprehended by another Dai Li.

"Get them all out of my sight."

She smirked as they were all taken away, but her good mood was soon soiled when she saw Long Feng walk in with a contingent of Dai Li, and Vergil by his side. She knew she was in no real danger, even if the Dai Li –by some unbelievable fluke- had changed back to his side, she still had Vergil, and he was in the perfect position for an assassination at anytime.

"Now comes the part where I double cross you. Dai Li, arrest the Fire Nation princess."

They did nothing.

He turned to them with a look of frustration.

"I said arrest her!"

They still did nothing.

"What is wrong with you!?"

"It's because they haven't made up their minds; they're waiting to see how this is going to end."

"What are you talking about?"

Her expression was becoming more and more confident by the moment. "I can see your whole history in your eyes; you were born with nothing, so you had to struggle and connive, and claw your way to power, but true power, the divine right to rule is something you're born with."

Vergil was suppressing his smirk; he was beginning to think this partnership was a good idea after all. All he had to do was keep his composure until she gave him the signal, which was his name. Once she said his name, he knew what he had to do.

"The truth is, they don't know which one of us is going to be sitting on that throne, and which one of us is going to be bowing down, but I know, and you know," she said as she walked back up to the throne, "and so does Vergil."

That was it. In a flash of movement so fast none of the Dai Li even followed it Vergil whipped out his blade, and rammed it through Long Feng's back, piercing his heart. His eyes bulged from the pain and he turned his head to look at the white haired swordsman.

"V-vergil…why?"

"Simple, she's already given me what I want, and I've just given her what she wants, making you…"

He twisted his blade and pushed it in further, sending spikes of pain all through Long Feng's body.

"…no longer necessary."

He pulled out his place, twirled it twice, and then slid it back into its scabbard. The second the blade hit its wooden home, Long Feng fell, landing in a pool of his own blood. His eyes didn't even linger on the corpse.

"Now princess," he said, looking up at Azula, "I believe you and I each have a family reunions to attend."

* * *

Down in the crystalline prison, Katara and Zuko were being kept together. At first, it was a fit of yelling and arguing, but it had settled down now, and they were talking like mature adults.

"I'm sorry, I yelled at you before," Katara apologized.

"It doesn't matter."

"It's just that, for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face."

Zuko fingered the scar on his left eye. "My face…I see."

"No, no, that's not what I meant," she said, trying to fix her mistake.

"It's alright, I used to think this scar marked me, the mark of the banished prince cursed to hunt the avatar forever, but lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny; even if I'll never be free of my mark."

"Maybe you could be free of it."

He turned to her in surprise. "What?"

"I have healing abilities," she explained.

"It's a scar, it can't be healed."

Katara reached underneath her shirt and grabbed a pendant she had. It was a cone shaped container with blue and white designs.

"This is water from the Spirit Oasis from the North Pole. It has special properties so I've been saving it for something important. I don't know if it'd work but…"

He considered it a moment, and then closed his eyes, accepting the offer. Katara held up the container, preparing to use it when suddenly the wall exploded. The smoke cleared, and Katara saw Aang, Dante, and Iroh standing in the place of it.

"Woo! Nice entrance kid!" complimented Dante.

"Aang!" she shouted, and immediately ran up and hugged him.

"There you two are, we've been lookin' everywhere for ya! Best game of Hide-n-Go Seek ever though."

Iroh didn't waste any time in embracing his nephew, but Dante could see the two glaring daggers at each other.

"I knew you'd come Aang," said Katara, finally letting go.

"Uncle, I don't understand, what are you doing with the avater!?" demanded Zuko.

"Hey, what about me, I'm here to ya know!?" said Dante.

"Saving you, that's what," said Aang, ignoring Dante completely for the moment.

Zuko tried to go at him, but Iroh held him back. "Zuko, it's time we talked."

Then he turned to Aang, Dante, and Katara, "Go help your other friends, we'll catch up with you."

Aang bowed and ran off back to the tunnel, followed by Dante and Katara. The swordsman noticed the girl glanced back at Zuko, but he stayed quiet about it. It was probably nothing.

Once they reached the other end of the tunnel, they were back in the large chamber that they had originally found.

"We've gotta find Sokka and Toph!" exclaimed Katara.

Only a few steps later, the ground in front of the three of them exploded as if suddenly and violently cleaved by a massive blade. Then, out of no where, a blue blur dropped down from above and slowly rose up from its knelt form.

It was a man, a man who looked a lot like Dante. He wore a long blue coat, a curved blade was in his right hand, it blade sparkling in the crystalline light, and the black scabbard on his waist to his right. His hair was slicked back, but his face was identical to Dante's

The red wearing swordsman stepped forward. "Heh, I was wonderin' when I'd run into you. I take it this party was mostly your planning."

"Indeed. I apologize if it wasn't quite up to your standards Dante, but I was just so excited to see you, I…couldn't focus on preparations for the bash."

Meanwhile, Katara looked to Aang for answers, but he merely shrugged.

"Who is this guy?" she whispered to him.

"Dunno, but he seems to know Dante."

"Well whatever; at any rate, it's been a whole year since we last met. How about a kiss from your little brother, or better yet," he said, pulling out Rebellion and pointing the tip at him, "a kiss from this!"

At this point, Katara and Aang both stood in shock. Dante had an older brother and he was working against them?

"Hm, so this is what they call a heartwarming family reunion."

Vergil flicked his blade, and prepared it to be drawn.

"You got that right."

Dante looked over his shoulder at Katara and Aang.

"You two get out of here, you're no where near a match for him. I'll take care of this."

They both nodded and headed off in a different direction, leaving Vergil and Dante to their own devices.

Dante smirked. "Let's do this."

They both let out a roar and charged each other. Their blades clashed and the sound of metal smashing into metal sliced through the air. They continuously slashed and thrust their blades, but each time they were able to block or dodge one another. It was an eternal dance of blades, an endless waltz of swords.

Dante twirled in one direction and Vergil another, their blades slicing around each other. Vergil brought down his katana on Rebellion, and Dante knocked it away, both of them jumping back to gain distance.

They ran forward again, and another furious hail of steel and sparks began. Their swords were but blurs to all who had the fortune to glance over at the battle. After Dante and Vergil jumped back again, Dante glanced back and saw Aang and Katara engaged in a battle between Zuko, and the girl he assumed to be the princess.

He barely had time to roll out of the way when Vergil caught him by surprise with another vertical slash. He recovered and rolled onto his knees, and threw Rebellion over his head, blocking yet another attack from Vergil.

Dante rolled backwards and onto his feet, twirling all the while and sliced with Rebellion. Vergil ducked under it, and his katana bit through Dante's abdomen as he tried to jump to the side and avoid it. The wound wasn't deep, but it was painful until it sealed back up.

Another flurry of dancing blades followed, pushing both brothers to use all their skill and reflexes to try and gain the upper-hand. Vergil teleported back as Dante slashed downward and stuck the ground, smashing the rock easily. As he recovered, Vergil put his katana back in its scabbard and flicked it open three times. Dante knew what was coming and ran as fast as he could.

A number of blue glowing swords, ten to be exact, appeared around Vergil and began spinning around him. With a motion of his hand, they all fired at once. Dante was running at full spend and jumped forward rolling underneath three, then immediately swinging Rebellion to knock away the forth.

He jumped high up, the fifth flying under, and the other five chasing up after him. Luckily, he was falling faster than the swords were chasing, and he was falling right towards Vergil.

"Air mail!" he shouted.

Vergil teleported away, leaving Dante to once again, destroy nothing but rock with his attack. The red wearing swordsman then rolled to the side; letting the last five Summoned Swords embed themselves in the rock before fading away. He hopped back up onto his feet and looked around for his brother.

He looked right and left but didn't see any sign of him. Then he heard the whistle and he jumped back. A second later, the ground exploded like it did before, like it was cleaved. He looked up, and there he was, standing atop a ledge above.

Dante ran for the cliff-face and jumped, them Air Hiked up to a ledge just below him. Another invisible cut slashed through the rock he had been on before he jumped and Air Hiked again, landing right next to his brother.

Their blades met again, and the clang of metal could easily be heard throughout the cavern, even over the roar of the battle below. Dante saw that the Dai Li had shown up and were joining in one the fun. He also noticed Aang wasn't holding up so well, and Katara could be doing better to. Of course, he wasn't doing the best job either.

Their whirlwind of steel stopped ever so suddenly, and their blades locked once more. With a great heave, Vergil was able to force Dante back, and the swordsman dug his feet into the ground to keep from falling off the edge behind him. He took in heavy breaths, he was wearing out and he hadn't landed more than a few scratches on Vergil. His brother was panting as well, but Dante latterly felt like his lungs might collapse.

With a roar, Dante charged forward again, dragging his sword against the rock sending sparks in all directions. Vergil was able to deflect the attack, but Dante twirled his blade and recovered, initiating a close range Stinger attack. The tip of Rebellions blade met the edge of his katana, and Vergil momentarily lost his grip. He caught it again, holding it reversed, and slammed the end of the hilt into Dante's stomach, sending him flying. He made one last desperate slash, but Vergil was able to deflect that as well, and Dante flew off the edge of the rock face, landing on his back. He turned his head and surveyed the rest of the battlefield. Aang had surrounded himself with those weird crystals and a glow was starting to emit, and Katara was close by, several liquid tendrils swirling around her, holding off the Dai Li.

"Dante!" shouted Katara.

He slowly rose knees, gasping for breath, and using Rebellion to hold up his weight.

"I'm okay, just worry about yourself!" he shouted back. Vergil teleported down form the cliff and walked forward slowly. He turned to the Dai Li with a hard look. "Be gone."

They hesitated, which only served to anger an already worked up and frustrated Vergil. "I said be gone!"

With that, swiped his katana in the air, twirled it twice, and then brought it back into a fighting position. He flicked the blade with his finger, and suddenly, every Dai Li agent within the vicinity, the ones surrounding Katara included, lost their heads, quite literally. After a slow breath, Vergil returned his gaze to Dante.

"Why do you refuse to gain power?" Vergil asked suddenly, "the power of our father Sparda."

Dante scoffed as he was finally able to stand up. "Father…I don't have a father, I just don't like you, that's all."

With that, Dante and Vergil met each other again, and locked blades. The force at which they pressed their steel together alone was enough to make sparks and generate head from their focal points. The pushed and pushed until finally, Vergil broke the cycle and flipped his blade under Rebellion, and disarmed his younger brother.

When the broadsword hit the floor, Vergi's katana pierced Dante's stomach. His initial reaction was a violent cough, and he grabbed the blade as tight as he could, attempting to get it out, but he couldn't find the strength, and only succeeded in cutting open his own hands.

His senses began to blur. He could hear Katara shouting out his name, and then shouting to Aang, but it was becoming less her voice, and more just mashed together with all the other sensations that were rushing through him.

"Foolishness Dante," he heard Vergil say, and then pulled him closer, driving the sword further into his body, "Foolishness. Might controls everything, and without strength, you cannot protect anything; let alone yourself."

With that, he pulled his sword free and let Dante fall. Not before taking what he needed from however; the silver amulet dangling from his neck. Dante attempted to reach out for it, but Vergil simply cut his hand against with his katana. Dante hit the floor with a thud, and Vergil stood victorious.

With the amulet in hand he sheathed his blade and picked up Rebellion. As he walked away, he suddenly heard light groans coming behind him; his brother was still barely alive. He turned and ran towards him again, sure enough he was attempting to get up, so he rammed Rebellion through his chest, pinning him to the ground and ensuring his death.

* * *

Everything was falling apart, two of her friends were just struck down simultaneously in front of her eyes. Aang shot with lightning by Azula, and Dante impaled by his own sword and by his own older brother no less. No, this wasn't how things were supposed to go.

She rushed summoned a torrent of water and rode right over the Dai Li. She caught Aang in her arms, and then rode the water back to where Dante was. She jumped off the wave and set Aang right next to the swordsman. She looked over him, but she knew he was already dead; no one could survive a sword through the heart like that.

"This could have been avoided if he'd just have joined with me the last time we had met," said Vergil from a short distance away, "a loss, but not an overly regrettable one."

Katara glared daggers at him. "You monster, you killed your own brother, and for what!?"

Vergil actually laughed, and pulled out the silver amulet. "Power; unlimited power."

She shrieked in rage and summoned another torrent of water and threw it at Vergil. A simple flick of his blade, and the water was blown asunder by slashes so fast, not even the sound of the wind being parted could keep up. He teleported directly in front of her, leaving her no room to attack, she was helpless.

"Foolish girl," and raised his blade.

Just as the attack was about to bite into her skin, she heard an explosion behind her, and before she even knew what happened, Vergil was forced several feet back. There stood Dante, his fist embedded in the blade of Vergil's katana.

"Ah, I see a devil has awoken within you as well."

In response, Dante ripped his hand out of the blade, grabbed onto it, and flung Vergil straight into a wall. Meanwhile, Katara looked on at the now risen Dante. He was just the same as before, but somehow different. His had an uncharacteristically rage filled look, and his was emitting a low white colored glow.

What had he meant when he said 'A devil has awoken within you as well'? She soon got her answer; Dante let out a horrifying roar, and the white aura intensified. He transformed suddenly, into…she didn't even know, but it terrified her. He was all red and black, his head had two large horns growing downward over his shoulders, and his mouth was filled with rows of razor sharp teeth. His eyes were onyx black, and held unbelievable pain and malice at the same time.

His yells finally faded, and so did the horrifying transformation. He reverted back to his normal self, and collapsed onto his knees. He fell face first onto the ground, and didn't move again. From the wall, Katara heard some coughs, and then saw Vergil emerge from the dust and smoke.

He glanced down at Dante, then over at Katara.

"Hardly worth the effort," and then he simply strode off, leaving the downed swordsman and avatar in Katara's care. Just when she thought things couldn't have gotten any worse, Zuko and Azula showed back up. They approached her slowly, but were halted when a stream of fire flew in their path. Iroh leaped down in front of them.

"You've got to get out of here; I'll hold them off as long as I can!"

She nodded and summoned a wave of water to carry both her and Dante and Aang. She held onto both as they glided down the underground river, and flew up the waterfall to the surface. They exited out near the palace and then set them both down so she could catch her breath. As she panted and gasped for air, she heard a familiar roar from above.

She looked up and smiled; it was Appa; the King and Bosco were on his back along with Toph and Sokka. The six legged bison landed and Sokka jumped down.

"What happened to them? Where are Iroh and Zuko?"

"No time, we need to get them both on Appa now, I'll get Aang, and you lift Dante!"

He nodded and grabbed Dante, throwing him over his shoulder. With the help of the Earth King, they were both loaded onto Appa. They took flight and headed out of Ba Sing Se. Meanwhile, Katara took out her Spirit Oasis water and spin it around and around until it began to glow. She pulled Aang forward and bent the water into the wound on his back.

It spread out over the wound then faded, and after a moment of being unresponsive, his arrow tattoo's glowed briefly and then faded again. He groaned and cracked his eyes open lightly, then drifted back into unconsciousness. Once she was satisfied Aang was at least out of the red, she looked up.

"How's Dante?" she asked.

"He's breathing and he's got a pulse. In fact, he doesn't even look hurt; it's more like he's unconscious, or even asleep."

Katara looked down with a serious look.

'_Dante…what are you?' _

* * *

Back in the Earth Kingdom palace, Azula sat the in the kings former throne. Zuko stood next to her, his expression was one of uncertainty.

"We've done it Zuko, it's taken a hundred years, but the Fire Nation has conquered Ba Sing Se."

Zuko looked down at the floor. "I betrayed uncle."

"No, he betrayed you."

She stood up from the throne. "Zuko, when you return home, father will welcome you as a war hero."

"But I don't have the avatar," he argued, "what if father doesn't restore my honor?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "He doesn't need to Zuko. Today you restored your own honor."

He remained silent, but was still unsure on the inside. Somehow, he knew she sensed it as well. The silence was broken however, when the throne room's doors were pushed open, and light footsteps echoed through the hall. Azula looked over to the other end of the room and saw Vergil. He was unharmed, but his coat had a few small patches of dirt, and his hair was slightly disheveled.

"Vergil, I assume things with your brother went well," she said, taking her seat back on the throne. He responded by holding out the silver amulet.

"I retrieved what I wanted, what becomes of him now is not my concern."

"So he's dead then?" she asked.

He remained silent for a moment. "Incapacitated perhaps, but not dead; Dante is nothing if not persistent. He will try and pursue me to reclaim his amulet."

Azula smirked from her seat. "If that's the case, then it sounds like even Ba Sing Se wouldn't be enough to keep him away. Perhaps you need somewhere a bit more secure."

"I'm already aware that you are planning to depart to the Fire Nation capitol, and you are asking me to come with you."

"The invitations stands," she offered.

Vergil turned to leave, his footsteps echoing through the room again. "Now that I have my brother's amulet, the Fire Nation would have been my destination regardless."

He turned his head and looked over his shoulder as he reached the throne room doors. "Our collaboration is not quite finished princess; I still may have use for you yet."

With that, the door closed, and Vergil had left the room. Zuko had stayed silent through the entire conversation, and watched in quiet observance. He now stood wondering just which one of them was in charge.

**

* * *

So there we are. Vergil has Dante's amulet, now the only thing that remains is to see what Dante does about it. I can say that they won't be meeting again until The Day of Black Sun invasion, but Vergil will still be popping up in the story, just obviously not as much as Dante.**

**Anyway, tell me what you thought of the fight and how I handled this litle fiasco and review.**


	5. Chapter 5: The Awakenings

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 5

**The Awakenings**

Okay guys, long chapter today, very long. This is where a few things will start falling into place, and you'll get an idea of how this will eventually go down. Most of the chapter is Dante, but Vergil does make appearances, but mostly not until the end.

I won't go into any details, so just read an enjoy.

* * *

Dante slowly cracked open his eyes. Things were blurry for a moment and all he could see was the blur of torches and grey walls. He had a pounding headache, but for some reason felt extremely energetic. Like he could run a marathon and back, it was an odd feeling.

"Hey, I think he's finally coming to!" exclaimed a voice above him.

"It's about time!"

His vision slowly swayed back into focus, and he could see the room aglow with fire and the walls nothing but metal. Fire Nation tapestries were hung on the wall and for a second he thought he had been captured or something. Those thoughts were eliminated when he heard some familiar voices.

"Wake up Pretty Boy, rise and shine!" shouted Toph.

Dante reached up to his forehead and massaged his head, trying to ease the throbbing in his head, but sat up at the same time. He was lying on a bed, a thick blanket formerly covering his body. His coat and boots were missing, but he still had on his pants.

"Dante, glad to see ya…not dead!" said Sokka.

He groaned and shook his head. "Jeez, feel like I was hit upside the head with a boat; how long was I out?"

"About a week, give or take a day," answered Sokka.

Dante swung his legs out from under the blanket and set his feet on the floor. After cracking his neck and back, he stood up, and after a brief sensation of dizziness, he stood steady.

"So, what's been going on since I went down?" he asked as he walked over to his coat and boots, which were set against a chair.

"Well, we ran out of Ba Sing Se after we lost it. Then we met up with Sokka and Katara's dad and his fleet and worked with them to steal this Fire Nation ship. That was two days ago," explained Toph.

"Huh, so Ba Sing Se ain't an option for us anymore. Earth Kingdom's gone, so where does that leave us?"

"Well, we started working on a modified version of the invasion plan," said Sokka, "but it's a little touch and go right now. We'll need to get a hold of all our old friends from around the Earth Kingdom, but it still might work. For right now, we'll be okay; we've been able to keep up our disguise as a Fire Navy ship so far."

By this time Dante had his boots and coat on again and was putting Rebellion over his shoulder and onto his back. "Well, at least the party isn't cancelled indefinitely; we just need to resend the invitations."

He straightened out his coat. "So, where's Aang and Katara. Saw they took a pretty big beating down in that cavern but I didn't exactly catch the end."

"Twinkletoes got hurt really badly by Azula, so Sugar Queen's been down there a lot healing him up. Snoozles and I've been checking in on you since she's been so busy."

"Huh, well thanks then, guess I owe ya one."

He noticed as he was standing back up, still getting used to walking around again, that Sokka was staring at him. He had an odd look; not one of suspicion like usual, but more like he was just trying to figure him out.

"Can I help you?"

"What happened down in Old Ba Sing Se? I asked Katara about it a while ago, and she tensed up like she was afraid. When she got you onto Appa, you were unconscious, but you looked perfectly fine even though you were in the middle of a battle. You didn't have a scratch on you."

Dante stared back at him for a moment. "Just lucky I guess; not the first time it's happened."

"You're lying," said Toph without missing a beat.

"Just how do you know that?" he shot back.

"Your heartbeat spiked for a second, and your breathing picked up a bit; you weren't sure how to answer at first, then you just came up with that lame excuse."

He looked between the two of them for a moment longer before scoffing and walking past them to the door leading out of the room. He grabbed hold of the latch and stopped.

"I'll catch up with you guys later; I'm gonna go take a look around, maybe drop in on the kid and Katara while I'm wandering. Where's the kid's room?"

Sokka hesitated for a moment. "Just down the hall, second door down on the right."

"Got it."

"Dante."

He looked over his shoulder after stepping over the threshold.

"You're going to have to tell us sooner or later. Whatever happened down there, it really scared her. I don't think Aang is the only reason she never comes here."

He responded by shutting the door.

Dante walked through the lower levels thinking over what had happened in Ba Sing Se. Vergil had killed him hadn't he? He'd been dead, right? All he remembered was being stabbed by Vergil, and then it was really dark for a while. After a second there was this light, but before he could reach it, things suddenly turned red and he opened his eyes.

The next thing he knew, his fist was split in half by Yamato, but he hardly even felt the pain. He wasn't even controlling what he was doing; it was like instinct had taken over. After that, the one thing he remembered most was releasing a huge amount of demonic energy at one time.

He'd never pushed that much out before. He usually only used it for things like Air Hikes, or Drive attacks, but this was more than that. He tried to recall just exactly what had happened. Only one thing returned to him; Vergils last words before he had fallen unconscious.

_"I see a devil has awoken within you as well."_

What did he mean by that?

He used a large amount of demonic energy, he was driven on instinct, and Vergil had said a devil had awoken. Could that mean that, maybe, he had unknowingly gained the ability to fully access his demon blood? He had noticed that Rebellion had taken on a new look. Its guard had extended outward and the skulls mouth in the center was now open with sharp teeth gaping, plus it even felt lighter than it ever had before. It seemed reasonable he guessed, but he wasn't sure.

As soon as he could, he'd try to duplicate the reaction and see what happened. For now, the only one other than him who knew anything about what had happened was Vergil and Katara. Since Vergil was out of the running for obvious reasons, his only option for any additional information was Katara.

He could already tell this wasn't going to go well.

* * *

Katara sat in Aang's room, using the water from the ship to heal up his wounds in another healing session. It had been just over a week now and he didn't show any signs of improving at all. He was still in his unconscious, catatonic state.

"How's the kid doing?"

Katara practically jumped out of her skin. Not only because she hadn't even heard anyone come in, but because she recognized the voice. She turned around and saw Dante standing near the door.

"H-he's alright. Still out, but he's not in any danger at least."

He strode casually into the room and walked over to the opposite side of the bed and took a seat one of the chairs. He had one foot on the ground, and one foot against the edge of the bed as he leaned back in his chair, two of the seats legs up in the air.

"I'm surprised you're up. You didn't even twitch once while we were moving all over the place, you hadn't moved for a week."

"I've always been a heavy sleeper."

After that, silence filled the room, broken only by the slow swishing of the water being used to tend to Aang's wounds. Dante observed both her and Aang. Aang unsurprisingly wasn't moving much, but Katara seemed to be concentrating a hell of a lot on her own hands. Almost like she was trying with all her might not too let her gaze stray anywhere else.

"You saw it didn't you," said Dante suddenly.

She glanced up for just a split second.

"Saw what?"

"Everything after Vergil gutted me with his sword. You were no more than ten maybe fifteen feet away, I know you saw it."

She remained silent, concentrating on her hands even harder than before.

"Look, I know…whatever the hell it was that happened probably freaked you out, but it's only coming back to me in flashes, nothing to actually remember. The only ones who saw it were you and Vergil, and luckily he's not here, so would ya mind filling in the gaps?"

There was another silence until she took a deep breath and exhaled. "After your brother stabbed you, Aang got hit with Azula's lightning and I went to grab him, then brought him back to keep next to you. I asked him why he would kill you, but all he did was hold out your necklace and said 'unlimited power'."

Dante made not of that much. He remembered Vergil taking his amulet, but he wasn't sure how his mother's gift would be much help in gaining unlimited power. Still, if he knew his brother, he wasn't doing anything small-time. Whatever his amulet had to do with some unlimited power, Vergil obviously knew what he was doing and had one hell of a plan.

"After that, I tried attacking him but he just cut up my water like it was nothing. He just flickered out of sight, and before I knew it, he was in front of me with his sword about to cut me open. At the last second, I heard this explosion, and then you showed up out of no where again. You punched into his sword and you cut your fist open, I know you did, but right after you grabbed his sword and threw him into a wall, it was like you'd never even scratched it," she continued.

"That was when it happened. You started screaming and there was this flash of really bright light, and when it was gone, you were this…thing. I don't know how to describe it other than you didn't look human anymore. You looked more like a demon. A few seconds later, you quieted down and fell to the ground and looked normal again. Everything after that you were unconscious for."

Just as he thought; he had, for a short while anyway, had full access to his demonic blood. Somehow he'd managed to transform into a complete demon; that had to be what Vergil had meant. The only thing now was being able to do it again. On top of his training, if he could learn how to use and hold that transformation, even for a few minutes, he might be able to beat Vergil and get his amulet back.

"Dante," called Katara.

He looked back at her, pulling himself from his thoughts.

"What happened to you down there? You have to have at least an idea."

Dante stood up and dusted off his coat, then walked around the bed, stopping just as he was about to pass Katara.

"Now isn't the time to explain things. When Aang wakes back up I'll tell all of you, but for right now be patient. I'll see ya 'round; I'm gonna go find some food."

He resumed his walking and pushed the latched door open, then closed it again, a squeak sounding from the grinding hinges. Katara watched him go, but didn't object; she wanted to know what happened, and if she had to wait until Aang woke up, then that was just more motivation to heal him faster. She turned back to the young avatar and continued her work.

* * *

Two more weeks passed and things went along smoothly. Sokka, his father, as well as a few others worked on modifying their invasion plan to fit their new lack of manpower. They had traveled through the Serpents Pass a few days ago and met up with two former freedom fighters; Pipsqueak and The Duke. Both were equally ironic names considering each of their sizes.

Dante met up with some of the people that the group had met before he joined them at Lake Laogai. He was introduced to Sokka and Katara's father, Hakoda, and another man from their tribe, Bato.

Most of the time thought, he spent below deck. They sailed past quite a few Fire Navy ships, and they didn't need to see a white haired, sword wielding teenager to make them suspicious of the entire ship and blow their cover. Sokka told him that it wouldn't be such a big deal if he'd just wear a Fire Navy uniform, but he wasn't about to abandon his favorite coat.

Things moved drearily slow, and Dante was beginning to grow bored. He'd been spending most of his time training with Rebellion and doing sets to keep up his physical strength. He'd also been trying to re-activate his demonic form from before in his room during the dead of night. After a week in a half of concentration, he'd managed to do it himself and hold it for all of two seconds, but at least he knew he could now do it. It was now just a matter of increasing the amount of time he could use it.

So here they were, slightly over three weeks into their sea voyage, and wouldn't you know who finally decided to wake up.

* * *

Aang slowly forced his eyes open, his entire body ached. He was completely disoriented; he had no idea where he was. In fact, for a moment he couldn't even remember who he was. Slowly though, everything came rushing back and he remembered the battle under the palace at Ba Sing Se. He remembered he lost.

He sat up and groaned, his body protested against every movement and it took all his strength just to get his legs over the side of his bed. A wave of dizziness and nausea swooped over him, and he tightened the grip on his knees to support his weight. He shook his head and held his stomach.

"What happened?" he groaned.

He looked over to his left, and saw the metallic walls and the torch lit room. The red tapestries hanging from the walls. It was a Fire Navy ship.

"Oh no!"

He immediately shot up despite his soreness and ran for his staff. Once the wooden tool was in hand, he used it as a crutch to further support himself and escaped his room. He cautiously crept through the corridors as fast as his weakened state would allow, stumbling on a few steps.

He leaned against a wall as he came up on a corner, and stopped one he heard a deep voice.

"You hear something?" he asked.

Adrenaline shot through Aang's body and he whipped back behind the corner. He steeled himself, and turned around again, swinging his staff and airbending a gust of wind at the two Fire Navy guards, creating a diversion as he hobbled down the hall.

"Stop, wait!" he heard the same guard call.

He didn't stop trying to escape. He needed to get to the upper deck of the ship, he'd be able to glide away and find his bearings. He finally found the stairs at the end of the hallway and pushed open the hatches. He tripped on his way up and dropped his staff.

It slid across the metal deck in between a Fire Navy officer, and Momo, who he was petting. He stared wide eyed.

"Momo?"

Both guards turned to him, and Momo jumped up and onto his shoulder, happily licking his face.

"Twinkletoes, that's gotta be you!"

He looked on in confusion as Toph, Katara, Pipsqueak, and The Duke, as well as Bato and another man he'd never met before all stood before him.

"Aang, you're awake!" said Katara.

"Are you sure? I feel like I'm dreaming" he replied, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Katara rushed up and embraced him.

"You're not dreaming, you're finally awake," she said, then released him. A moment later, someone in a Fire Nation uniform approached him.

"Aang, good to see ya back with the living buddy!"

Aang squinted as he looked forward. "Sokka?"

He suddenly felt very woozy again and was loosing his balance. Toph saw it happening and pointed it out.

"Uh oh, somebody catch him he's gonna-!"

She stopped mid sentence as Aang fell backwards. He would have struck the hard metal floor if it hadn't been for two arms coming up from behind and catching him at the last moment. Once he was hoisted back up, Dante looked to the rest of the group.

"So, what'd I miss?"

* * *

A few minutes later Aang woke up again, and everyone was there when he began his assault of questions.

"Why are we on a Fire Nation ship, why is everyone dressed this way, and why am I the only one who's completely out of it?" he asked.

Katara put a hand up in a motion to calm him. "You need to take it easy okay, you got hurt pretty bad."

He closed his eyes and felt the bandages wrapped around his chest.

Katara smiled. "I like your hair."

Aang's eyes immediately bulged out. "I have hair!?"

"Yup, and who knows, keep growin' it out and it might look as cool as mine someday," commented Dante, who took a seat a short distance away.

He frantically felt the top of his head and discovered he did indeed have hair.

"How long was I out!?"

"A few weeks," she replied.

A pair of footsteps filled both their ears as someone approached them. "Everything okay?"

Katara's expression instantly soured. "We're fine dad."

He bent over slightly and extended his hand. "I'm Hakoda, Katara and Sokka's father."

"He know's who you are, I just called you dad didn't I?" she shot back more aggressively that warranted. Hakoda looked back with a look of disappointed confusion, unsure of why his daughter was acting this way.

"I guess you're right."

Aang looked up with a smile and clasped his hand. "It's an honor to meet you Chief Hakoda."

"It's an honor to meet you."

Katara looked away angrily. "Great, you guys have met, so would you mind giving us a little privacy?"

The same expression as before crept its way onto Hakoda's face.

"Of course," he said simply, and then turned and walked away.

Aang looked back at her. "Are you mad at your dad or something?"

She returned his look. "No, not at all, why would you say that?"

Dante had been observing from his seat not far away, and while Aang was ignorant to what had been going on the past week or two, he wasn't. He'd noticed the trend developing between Katara and her father. He would try and talk to her, and she'd angrily brush him off.

Based off what Sokka told him about their past he had an idea of why she was mad at him, and he'd been there. It really wasn't his business, so he just stayed out of it at first, but now it was getting a little annoying and he didn't want something as lame as this to potentially ruin the invasion. He didn't want his party crashed by stupid family matters.

Aang suddenly cringed and grasped his side. "Maybe we should go upstairs, you need a healing session," suggested Katara, helping him up.

Dante stood up as well and walk over to Aang, taking him from Katara, and throwing him over his shoulder. Aang groaned a bit from the sudden shift in position.

"No pain no gain kid, shake it off," encouraged Dante, "it'll be over before ya know it."

The three of them climbed up to the upper levels and into a torch lit room where Katara already had some water waiting on a small table. Dante set Aang down in front of it, and then grabbed a chair, watching Katara go to work. She waterbent two slivers of water out of twin cups and began healing around his new scar on his back.

"Tell me where your pain is most intense," she instructed.

"Ugh, a little higher."

Dante saw him cringe again as the water hovered over his wound. Aang however, saw a flashback of himself in the avatar state, underground in Ba Sing Se.

"Wow, you're definitely in the right area there."

"I can feel a lot of energy twisted up around there," she agreed, "Let me just see if I can…"

She pulled her water back and Aang's back arched and his head shot back, like he was in extreme pain. The memories of the lightning and his death came back to him in more detail that they had before.

"I went down; I didn't just get hurt, it was worse than that! I was gone, but you brought me back."

"I just used the spirit water from the North Pole, I don't know what I did exactly."

Aang turned around. "You saved me."

Katara put a hand on the side of his head. "You need to rest."

Dante stood up from his seat. "Alright, all aboard the Dante express!"

Aang immediately scooted back. "Uh…thanks for the offer Dante, but I'll just take one of the rooms up here, save myself some walking."

He shrugged. "Suit yourself, kid."

After Katara helped him up, he used his staff as a cane again, and limped into a room across the hall, and closed the door latch. Dante stood in between the door, and Katara who was putting the bowls and table away. The swordsman plopped down on his chair again.

"So, what's got you so peeved at your dad, huh?" he asked.

She gave him an innocent look as she placed the bowls on a different table against the wall. "What do you mean, I'm not mad?"

"Katara, you're probably the worst liar on the planet, even I can tell you're pissed about somethin'. It's because your dad left you right? Left you and your brother alone?"

"It doesn't matter," she replied, keeping her back turned to him.

Dante scoffed. "Whatever, I can understand having it out for your pops for leaving you, trust me, but there's a key difference between your dad and mine."

She looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes narrowed. The subject of her father was a touchy subject. "Yeah, and what's that?"

"Your dad's here now, so unlike me, you're gonna have to deal with him. I'm not sayin' forgive the guy, I don't think I'd bother to try and forgive mine, but do whatever your gut tells ya. If it's says forgive em', then forgive em'; if not, then figure something else out."

She didn't respond, but kept one eye on him as he stood up from the chair. "Well, I'm gonna go make sure the kid didn't hurt himself gettin' in to bed."

"Dante, now that Aang's awake are you going to…"

"Tomorrow night, tell your brother and the twerp to come down to the galley, I'll grab the kid; he should be up to it by then."

With that, he opened the latch on the door and stepped out, re-sealing the metal covering behind him. As he stood in the empty hallway, he stared into space thinking about his loss to Vergil at Ba Sing Se. He was getting stronger little by little, and when he was strong enough, he'd go after Vergil and get his amulet back.

* * *

Across the world in the Fire Nation, a ceremony was being held for the triumphant return of Azula and Zuko. They would be presented to the people of the Fire Nation and be remembered by all as the war hero's who conquered Ba Sing Se. Inside the tower over which towered all the people, Zuko and Azula stood inside. Vergil was present as well, but only as a formality; he kept his involvement with the coup a secret, preferring to keep a low profile and avoid annoying attention.

"Are you sure you don't want some of the glory Vergil, you'll be showered with praise and worshiped as a Fire Nation hero."

He merely grunted. "Glory is for those too insecure to simply know their deeds were great, rather they seek the praise of others to validate what they have done. The simple fact the Earth Kingdom was brought to its knees is enough for me, regardless of how pathetically easy it was."

Zuko glanced in Azula's direction; Vergil had basically just called her insecure and pathetic. To his amazement, she simply brushed the subtle insults aside.

"Perhaps so, but it's more a matter of morale and national pride than a method of validation," she said, throwing a glance at Zuko.

"Your princess Azula, clever and beautiful, disguised herself as the enemy, and entered the Earth Kingdom's capitol!" boomed a voice.

Azula looked over to Zuko. "Sounds like its show-time."

"In Ba Sing Se she found her brother Zuko, and together they faced the avatar, and the Avatar fell, and the Earth Kingdom fell!" the voices boomed again.

"Azula's agents quickly overtook the entire city! They went to Ba Sing Se's great wall, and brought it down! The armies of the Fire Nation surged through the wall, and swarmed over Ba Sing Se, securing our victory!"

Vergil smirked slightly. "Quite overly dramatic aren't they."

"It's a crowd pleaser, nothing more," waved off Azula.

Zuko still remained silent, and stared at the ground.

"Now your hero's have returned; your princess Azula!"

Azula stepped forward to the end of the balcony and looked down at the crowd of thousands. They cheered her on.

"And after three long years, your prince has returned; Zuko!"

Zuko walked forward as well and took a spot on the opposite end of the balcony, looking down at the crowd as well. They cheered him on as well.

Azula smirked, and looked back to glance at Vergil, only to find he had mysteriously disappeared.

* * *

It was the next day on the ship and Sokka, Bato, and Hakoda sat in front of Aang, explaining what had happened. Toph and Katara sat next to him while Dante stood in between Toph and Aang.

"After what happened in Ba Sing Se, we needed to get you to safety. We flew back to chameleon bay where we found my father and the other water tribe men. The Earth King decided he wanted to go off and travel the world alone…well, not completely alone."

"Soon, the bay was overrun by Fire Nation ships, so rather than fight them all, we captured one and made it our disguise. Since then we've been traveling west and passed the Serpents Pass two days ago; so far no Fire Nation ships have bothered us."

Aang looked around hesitantly for a second, and then looked back.

"So what now?"

"We've been working on a modified version of the invasion plan," answered Hakoda.

"It's Sokka's invasion plan," said Katara aggressively, her current feelings towards her father unchanged despite her conversation with Dante.

"Yes…Sokka's plan," he said, staring at her confused, but turned back to Aang, "We won't be able to mount a massive invasion without the Earth Kingdoms armies, but the solar eclipse will still leave the Fire Nation vulnerable."

"So we're planning a smaller invasion, just a rag-tag team of our friends and allies from across the Earth Kingdom. We already ran into Pipsqueak and the Duke," Sokka said, gesturing towards the pair.

"Good to see ya again Aang," said Pipsqueak.

Sokka turned back to Aang. "And the best part is, the eclipse isn't even our biggest advantage, we have a secret," he said, whispering the last part, then leaned in closer slightly, "you."

"Me?" Aang asked, utterly confused.

"Yup, the whole world thinks your dead, isn't that great!"

Once again, the only thing Dante could do to respond to that was to bury his face in his palm. Aang sat there with a dumbstruck look, as would be expected. He stood up with a blank look on his face and ran to the edge of the boat. He was silent for a moment, then suddenly yelled; "The world things I'm dead!? How is that good news, that's terrible!?"

"No, it's great! It means the Fire Nation won't be looking for you anymore, and even better, they won't be expecting you on The Day of Black Sun!" reassured Sokka.

Aang put up his hands urgently. "No, no, no, no, you have no idea, this is so messed up!"

"I'm with ya on that one kid," commented Dante, "but as much as I hate this sneakin' around, it is kinda nice to kick back for a change. Plus the element of surprise never hurt; nothing like an easy cheap shot to start a fight."

Aang was about to reply when a deep horn sounded from a distance away, and caught the whole decks attention. Coming towards them was another Fire Nation ship.

"Aw crap," groaned Dante.

Aang made a grab for his staff. "I'll handle this, the avatar is back."

He probably would have tried to take off if his side hadn't shot a jolt of pain through his torso, causing him to put a hand to his chest and groan.

"Aang wait," said Katara, "remember they don't know we're not Fire Nation."

He had a less than satisfactory look on his face, but agreed regardless and put his staff away.

"Everyone just stay calm, Bato and I will take care of this," said Hakoda, slipping on a Fire Nation commander's helm.

Duke and Pipsqueak threw a tarp over Appa to hide him away while Toph, Sokka, Aang, Katara, and Dante hid in one of the stairways leading down below deck.

"I hate not being able to do anything," grumbled Aang.

"Hopefully you won't need to," replied Toph.

The two ships crossed paths at last, and both came to a halt parallel to each other. The enemy ship laid down a gangway between the two vessels, and the captain along with two guards made their way across it. Hakoda bowed to the Fire Nation captain as he began questioning him.

"Commander, why are you off course? All Western fleet ships are supposed to be moving toward Ba Sing Se to support the occupation."

Hakoda glanced to the side for a moment before coming up with a cover. "Actually we're with the Eastern fleet; we have orders to deliver some cargo."

The captain nodded. "Ah, Eastern fleet; well nice of admiral Chan to let us know he was sending one of his ships our way."

"I'm sure admiral Chan meant no disrespect sir," said Bato.

"I mean, how hard is it to write a quick note and send a hawk our way?" the captain complained.

"Next time we'll send two hawks to make sure you get the message," he said with a slight grin, confident his cover story was working out. He bowed to the captain once more, and he returned the gesture.

Dante was watching from the stairway, and saw one of the guards, who up until now had remained perfectly stationary, turn his head and whisper something into the captain's ear. He saw the captain's lips moving, and while he couldn't hear what he was saying, he could tell by his expression that there was something making him suspicious. Their might have been a hole in Hakoda's cover story and the guard had pointed it out, he wasn't completely certain, but that didn't change the fact that the look on the captains face was anything but trusting. He looked over his shoulder at the rest of them; everyone else had completely normal expressions except for Toph, whose eyes widened suddenly.

She suddenly jumped out from the staircase, pointed at the ship and shouted; "They know!"

She grabbed a hold of the deck of the ship, and metalbent through it until she reached the gangway, pulling it loose and dropping the three Fire Navy officers into the ocean. Katara was taking action as well, pulling up a massive amount of water until both ships were a fair distance apart.

Their ship immediately sped up and away from the enemy vessel. The other ship did a surprisingly quick U-turn and was in hot pursuit faster than anticipated. They fired a fireball from their catapult, but the first one missed. The second round struck the side of the ships hull.

Pipsqueak lifted a huge boulder then slammed it down onto the deck, and Toph entered an earthbending stance. She hurtled the slab of rock at the enemy ship and shattered one of their catapults. Toph fired another rock to deflect a fireball shot from the second catapult aboard the ship behind them.

Meanwhile, Sokka, Aang, and Dante stayed inside the ship, unfortunately not being of much use in ship to ship combat, especially to Dante's frustration. He hated not being part of a fight. Aang tried to run out and help, but Sokka motioned for him to stay put, not wanting him to reveal himself. The avatar slammed his head against his staff in frustration near Dante's.

The ship rattled amongst the water even more when the enemy ship fired a metal harpoon into a section of the hull that was underwater, and ripped the metal apart. The ship was now taking on water rapidly. Katara used water bending and covered the breach with ice, patching it until they could land somewhere.

"I'm gonna give us some cover!" she announced.

With waterbending, she brought up and evaporated a massive amount of water, creating an artificial mist around the ships. Through the fog, a fireball dispersed the gas and struck the pile of rocks Toph had been using as ammunition, and destroyed them all.

Aang took cover as the debris from the explosion rolled by, then looked out onto the deck. "I can't just stand by and do nothing!"

He turned to run out onto the deck, but as he took his first step out of the interior of the ship, he felt a hard tug on the back of his shirt, and was dragged back inside.

"Oh no ya don't!" growled Dante.

Aang looked up at him angrily.

"Don't gimmie that look; you're still busted up from your ass-whoopin' back at Ba Sing Se! What good could you possibly do out there!?"

"I know this stinks Aang," said Sokka, putting a hand on his shoulder, "but just stay secret for now, let us handle this."

Aang looked down at the floor.

"Fine," he said with obvious frustration.

Another explosion rocked the ship as a fireball from the enemy vessel struck their engine, setting it ablaze. Katara moved to it quickly and put out the flames with a quick burst of water.

Out on deck, Sokka had stepped out onto the deck to check their progress as Dante stayed near the threshold of the door with a firm grip on Aang's shoulder, should he try and make another bolt outdoors.

"How're we doing?" asked Toph from the railing of the ship.

"Things couldn't get much worse."

Out of no where, a huge green serpent erupted from under the water and bellowed a mighty roar to mark its appearance. Sokka stared up at the beast. "The universe just loves proving me wrong doesn't it?"

"You make it too easy," retorted Toph.

Just as it was about to attack their ship, a fireball came flying across the sky and collided with its head. It did no real damage, but served it anger it enough to ignore it's current target in favor of the one that just attacked it. It submerged again and swam over to the Fire Nation ship.

It sprang up from the water and coiled itself around the vessel, roaring as it attacked. Sokka looked on from the rear of the ship, and then smiled.

"Thank you the universe!"

* * *

Later, after the sea battle, the ship had docked at a small port for some supplies and to repair what they could of the damage. Aang was sitting in his room, staring up at the ceiling from his bed. He heard a screech from the door to the right of his bed and he looked over to see Toph, Katara, Sokka, and Dante. They all still wore their Fire Nation disguises save for Dante, who was wearing just about the same thing he always did except he had a bandanna over his head to cover his white hair, and he noticed that his normally ever present sword, was absent.

"Hey Aang, we're going into town to find some dinner," said Toph.

Aang's stomach gave a low gurgle, and he clutched it lightly with his hand. "Well, I am pretty hungry; maybe dinner's a good idea."

"Here," said Sokka, pulling out a strip of red cloth, "it'll cover your arrow."

Aang's expression scrunched up into one of displeasure. "I'm not going if I can't wear my arrow proudly."

With that, he turned over onto his bed and refused to talk.

"Aang, come on, be practical."

"Seriously, even I'm sacrificing my awesome hair to stay on a low profile. It's not that big a deal kid."

"For you maybe," he muttered angrily.

That was when Katara stepped in. "You guys go on ahead; we'll catch up with you."

Sokka and Toph turned to leave, but Dante stayed standing by the door. Katara looked over at him.

"You can go with the others, I'm sure you're hungry to."

"Not this time; I'm a little curious, so I figure this should be as good a place as any to see just what the hell is the matter with the kid. He hasn't even been awake for two days, and already I had to hold him down from trying to fight in a battle he would have been no good in, and now he's bitchin' because he can't show off a tattoo. What's up with that?"

Katara sighed, but turned back to Aang. "I think I know why being a secret bothers you so much, you don't want people to think you failed."

"You're right, I don't, but the problem is I did fail," he argued.

"Aang that's not true."

"It is true, I was in Ba Sing Se, I was there, but I lost, and now the Earth Kingdom has fallen for good."

"So what," said Dante, "I lost to; I fought my brother one on one and I'm not afraid to admit I got my ass kicked, but you don't see me mopin' around like there's no hope. In case you forgot, we still got a party to attend in the Fire Nation, and nobody likes a downer at a party."

Katara still had a small smile. "As weird as he made it sound, Dante actually has a point; we've still got a shot, remember there's still a plan, the invasion."

"And I hate the invasion plan to, I don't want you or anyone else risking their lives to fix my mistakes!" he shouted, ripping down a Fire Nation tapestry that hung over his bed in anger.

"I've always known I'd have to face the Fire Lord, but now I know I have to do it alone."

"Quick observation here kid," interrupted Dante, "now, my memory might be fuzzy from the where I got gutted and onward, but I'm pretty sure the only ones that got hurt in Ba Sing Se, were you and me. Katara was fine, Sokka was fine, and the twerp was fine to. If anything, you need to be worrying more about yourself than them right now. I don't see anyone else on the ship practically mummified."

"Shut up Dante!" shouted Aang, "All you ever do is run around and make sarcastic remarks, you don't even have any reason to fight the Fire Nation other than to have fun! What could you have ever lost to make you understand, huh!?"

Dante stood there for a moment, staring at him, then scoffed and waved his hand. "Whatever then, I'm out, do as you please."

He grabbed the latch on the door, swung it open, and slammed it shut. At first, Katara didn't realize just how upset that last remark from Aang had made him, and then she saw what happened to the door when he closed it. The latch on the door was practically crushed where he grasped it, like the metal was made out of wet clay. She knew Dante wasn't a bender, so that had come out of sheer physical strength.

Katara walked toward Aang. "Aang."

"Katara please, just go, please," he growled before she could reach him.

She backed off and slowly made her way to the now damaged door. Before she left she looked back at him.

"Is there anything you need?"

"I need to redeem myself," he said, "I need my honor back."

* * *

It was late at night and Dante was sitting at the very top of the Fire Nation ship, on the roof of the observation deck. He looked up at the moon between the clouds. He sighed as his hand reached for his chest, searching for the amulet he knew wasn't there. He had to get it back, and that was his reason for fighting now. Vergil was working with the Fire Nation, and that meant that they had a hand in him losing his most cherished possession, and that was enough for him to fight.

He knew Hakoda and Bato were down below, looking out at the sea as well. He'd heard them talking, but now he heard the door to the deck open, and a new pair rapid footsteps came from below. He learned forward to listen in.

He was a bit too high up and far away to hear everything in perfect clarity, but he did catch some keywords that filled him in enough to know that Aang had taken off. He shook his head and stood up. He figured the kid would do something stupid like this eventually, and as pissed as Dante was, it didn't stop him from recognizing the fact that they still needed him.

He looked down at Katara again, and saw she and her father were hugging for the first time in probably years now. He grinned a little; at least something good came from this crazy shit-storm. With that, he walked over to the side of the observation deck roof and jumped over the edge, landing on the deck on his feet with a 'thunk'. The impact had warped the metal inward a bit where his boots had hit, but he doubted anyone would notice.

He decided he should probably warn everybody else that Aang was gone; the little bastard wasn't gonna last very long by himself.

* * *

It was the next day, and Aang was still very much alive, but also very much unconscious, but a familiar sensation of Momo licking his face was enough to jolt his senses back into action. He groaned as his eyes cracked open and he saw the light of morning, then Momo's face pop up in front of him.

He groaned again and sat up, trying to clear his head of the fresh wave of grogginess and disorientation. He looked over and saw Katara, Sokka, Toph, and even Dante running towards him. Katara made it to him first and slid onto her knees to embrace him.

"You're okay!" she exclaimed happily.

Sokka and Toph soon joined in the huge group hug, as did Appa. Dante stood to Aang's side, standing there looking out at the sun. Aang looked up at him, and Dante glanced down as well. They stared at each other for a moment.

"Dante…I'm sorry for what I said on the ship. I was wrong, please forgive me."

Dante was silent for a few more seconds, before a grin slowly slipped onto his face, and he set his hand in Aang's head.

"I guess just this once, but don't make a habit outta pissin' me off."

Aang smiled, but then looked down

"I have so much to do."

"I know," said Katara, "but you'll have our help."

Aang looked up again. "Even yours right Dante?"

Dante grinned again and started pacing a bit back and forth. "Well kid, I'll be honest with ya. When I first joined you guys back at that Lake, I'll admit I didn't really give a damn one way or the other who won or lost, I was just in it for fun. Later on though, my brother got involved and stole my amulet. I know my brother; he doesn't do anything small or halfway. Whatever he needs my amulet for, especially if it involves 'unlimited power', then it can't be good for anyone, even the Fire Nation. I don't have a clue what he's up to, but I do know whatever it is, I've gotta keep him from doing it, and since he's workin' with that psycho-bitch Azula, I don't really got a choice but to stick with you now do I?"

The four of them smiled up at him.

"Great, we're one big happy family again, so now what?" said Toph.

"We'll meet up with my dad and invasion force of the day of the eclipse," explained Sokka.

"Hey, what's this?" asked Toph as she reached back into the water. She pulled out a piece of wood, which was quickly recognized as the remains of Aang's glider.

Aang grabbed it and stood up. "It's okay, if someone saw it, it would give away my identity. It's better for now if no one knows I'm alive."

Aang air-jumped on top of one of the mounds on the volcanic island they were currently on, and he stuck his staff into the ground. They all watched as it burned.

* * *

That night, the five rode on Appa to a more hospitable island and made camp there. It was warm and had a tropical look to it; the gang set up a fire and some bedrolls on the shores looking out on the empty ocean. After everything was set up and they all had their dinner prepared, they sat around the fire with mostly just some bread and fruit.

Dante was the last to sit down, and glanced around the other four as he lowered himself onto the sand. Katara looked up at him, and he knew what she was expecting, and he nodded. He took a deep breath and got everyone's attention.

"Okay guys, I've got something to say. I would have gone over this last night, but due to some dramatic events, I never got around to it. The truth is, I haven't been completely honest with you."

"Wadda ya mean?" asked Sokka, his mouth still relatively full.

"Let me start off by asking you guys this; have any of you ever heard the Legend of Sparda?"

At first, everything was silent as Katara and Sokka look between each other, and Toph scratched her head.

"Oh, I have, I remember monk Gyatso telling it to me once!" exclaimed Aang.

"Then I'll let you take it away, kid."

"Alright; the Legend of Sparda tells the tale of an ancient demon two thousand years ago who served as a general for the realm of darkness. He was said to be the most powerful being in the dark realm, so to combat him and the other demons, the spirits created the first avatar. The two met in battle, and in the end, their stalemate created a friendship. Sparda came to respect humans and turned against his own master, and fought the prince of the dark realm, and defeated him. After that, Sparda stayed in the human world and he just quietly faded into legend until most of the world forgot him."

Katara and Sokka sat there with impressed looks on their face, and Toph smirked.

"Wow, that sounds amazing," said Katara, "why is this important though?"

"Because I'm his son," said Dante without missing a beat.

Another silence fell over the camp.

"Okay, maybe it's because I'm the group skeptic, but I'm not buying that."

"No Sokka, I think he's telling the truth. When we were down under Ba Sing Se, Dante transformed into something for a little while; I wasn't sure what it was at first, but after hearing that story, I think I know what happened. I think Dante transformed into a demon," said Katara.

"Plus, remember when we were getting into the Earth Kingdom palace, he did that weird red slash thing with his sword," added Aang.

"He's a demon; he could live for thousands of years without growing old. Don't bother asking me where he is now; he's probably dead or something. He left the family behind when I was still little and never came back."

"What about your mother?" asked Katara.

His expression soured even further and he hesitated for a moment. "Dead, she was killed when I was seven or so."

"The Fire Nation?" asked Sokka.

"Demons; they're usually pretty uncommon on this plane of existence nowadays, but every once in a while a few small-fries will slip through. They came to our house and went to town; my mother got me to safety, and apparently Vergil to, but she didn't have the same luxury. After that, Vergil and I didn't meet up again until a year ago, and since mom died he's become a power hungry maniac. We fought once before, and I lost then to.

For what seemed like the hundredth time, a silence fell over the camp.

"I'm so sorry Dante. If anyone knows how you feel, it's Sokka and I," said Katara softly.

He shook his head. "Thanks, but don't worry about it, it's in the past and it isn't what we should be worryin' about. We gotta focus on the invasion. Just a fair warning though; if we run into Vergil during the invasion, don't try the fight him, don't even look at him, he'd tear through you before you could even blink. Just back off and leave him to me."

They all nodded, the atmosphere becoming more serious.

"To be honest," said Dante, "I'm a little surprised you guys didn't freak out on me. I mean, there is a demon sitting in front of you ya know."

"You have no idea how many other weird things we've been through have you?" replied Toph.

"She's right Dante, and besides, you haven't done anything but help us. You're still our friend, and who your father was isn't going to change that," agreed Aang.

Sokka suddenly stood up and yawned.

"Well, I've had just about enough weirdness for one night; I'm getting some sleep, night everybody."

Katara stood up as well. "He's right; we should all get some rest."

Everyone headed for their bedrolls and laid down for sleep, resting up for their travels to come tomorrow.

* * *

That same night, deeper in the Fire Nation, within the confines of the capitol, the palace stood silent an unmoving, but in the darkness of night, there was one person who was not asleep, and he was currently in the library. Vergil flipped through some of the pages of the book he was currently in possession of, and without delay, placed it back on the shelf. That was not what he was looking for either.

He grabbed yet another book from the shelf, and began flipping through its pages until he heard footsteps echo through the spacious room. He stopped his reading, but didn't look up.

"So, you're Vergil, my daughter has spoken highly of you," said a cold, almost snake like voice.

The swordsman looked to his right, and there stood the Fire Lord himself. Most people would be intimidated by such a large and powerful figure, but Vergil merely returned to his book.

"It is late, you should rest. I would hate to have my honored guest collapse from exhaustion."

"Your concern is unwarranted and unneeded. If you would kindly leave me to my reading, it would be appreciated, _your majesty_."

He acted as if he didn't hear him and walked towards him slowly. "What might a young swordsman be in search of in the royal library's section on ancient Fire Nation history? Dabbling in archeology or anthropology perhaps? You seem like a well educated young man."

Vergil grunted. "Nothing quite so trivial, now leave me to my studies; I will not ask a third time."

He closed the book he was flipping through and placed it back on the shelf; still not what he was searching for. The Fire Lord still refused to leave him and took another step forward.

"If you were to tell me what you seek, I could point you in the right direction. I know his library quite well."

That was the last straw; Vergil pulled Yamato from its scabbard and pointed its tip at the Fire Lord, which missed nicking his nose by only an inch. He pulled another book from the shelf.

"Leave me now, or this will end very painfully for you," threatened Vergil as he flipped the book open with one hand. The Fire Lord merely chuckled.

"You remind me of myself at your age, Vergil. You have the same fire in your eyes, I can see that; I can respect that."

There was a pause in their conversation, and Vergil turned his eyes towards the Fire Lord. He was simply looking at him, as if caught in a daze.

"Well," he suddenly spoke up, "I suppose I can't convince you to rest, so I shall be on my way. Before I go however, I have something to show you, something I think you will find most fruitful."

Vergil, after sheathing his blade, closed his book and placed it back on the shelf. The book had been useless anyway. "Very well, but I warn you, if this is something unimportant, then I won't hesitate to compensate myself for lost time."

The Fire Lord chuckled again. "I wouldn't worry; I think this will be to your advantage."

The two of them walked down the isle until they reached a door at the end. The Fire Lord pulled out a key from in one of his sleeves and unlocked it. The stepped into what looked like a storage room for scrolls and books that were unused in the library. Vergil was led to the very back of the room where he saw a wooden case on a table against the wall.

The Fire Lord opened it and pulled out a scroll. He handed it to Vergil with care, and the white haired swords man unrolled it. It was written in characters that unlike any other in the library, but Vergil had seen them before. He had found what he was searching for.

"That scroll was found years ago in the ancient Wan Shi Tong Library. It is unbelievably old, and despite our scholars best efforts, unreadable. I believe however, that you may find this beneficial."

Vergil smirked. "Yes your majesty, very beneficial indeed."

The Fire Lord chuckled as he left Vergil. "Call me Ozai."

**

* * *

Okay, so are you confused yet, or are you getting this? Either way, I guess it's okay. Vergil's got a plan, and Dante's gonna try and stop him.** **I realize I actually skipped quite a big chunk of the actual episode, but really nothing at all changed when Aang was out at sea, so I didn't see why I should make you sit through something you could just watch on Youtube in half the time.**

**Review if you please**


	6. Chapter 6: Headbands and Bandannas

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 6

**Headbands and Bandannas**

Hello again guys. Well, some sad news boys and girls; this is the last of my pre-written material, so updates are going to come in a lot slower now. No more daily updates, sadly.

This chapter isn't too bad; it's still a bit filler-ish, but it's entertaining. I'll be introducing a character this chapter who I may or may not bring back in later chapters, I'm not sure. Either way, this chapter is really Dante centric.

* * *

It was still early in the morning and the group was all riding on Appa, under the guise of a cloud in the sky. Aang seemed convinced it would work, and so far –surprisingly- it had. He couldn't be sure, but Dante thought he could see some land up ahead.

"I think I see a cave below," said Aang.

Sokka immediately flew off the handle and tried to quiet him down. "Shh! Keep quiet!"

Aang dispersed the cloud around them with some airbending, and Appa plopped down on the ground. As soon as they all hit the ground, Sokka darted for cover and looked everywhere for danger.

"Great job with the cloud camo, but next time, let's disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud who knows how to keep its mouth shut."

Dante sighed. "Sokka, chill out man, it's not like we're gonna get attack everywhere we go. Our luck ain't _that _bad."

"No Dante, he's right, we wouldn't want a bird to hear us chatting up there and turn us in," Toph joked.

"Hey, we're in enemy territory! Those are enemy birds!"

Just then, one of the birds sitting on the rock above him plopped down and landed on his head. He scowled immediately, but everyone else, even Dante, go laugh out of it. They headed into the cave they'd landed near, and even though there was clearly no one inside, it didn't stop Sokka from dodge rolling right and left like he was invading a maximum security prison.

Dante looked to Katara and asked; "How the hell did you manage to deal with him for fourteen years?"

"It wasn't easy, but I got by."

"I've got a lot to learn," he sighed.

Sokka was oblivious to their teasing and was still inspecting the cave. He suddenly turned around to address the rest of them.

"Well this is it, this is how we'll be living until the invasion begins; hiding in cave, after cave…after cave…after cave."

Katara sighed. "Sokka, we don't need to become cave people, what we need is some new clothes."

"Yeah, blending in is better than hiding out. If we get Fire Nation disguises, we'll be just as safe as we would be hiding in a cave," agreed Aang.

"Plus they've got real food out there, does anyone want to sit in here and eat cave hoppers?" added Toph, smacking the wall and freeing several small white creatures which Momo dived immediately for.

"Looks like we got outvoted sport, let's find some new clothes."

Dante stepped forward and threw up his hands. "Wait, wait, wait, does this mean I'm gonna have to ditch my coat!?"

Katara thought about it for a moment. "I…think it would be a good idea. You stand out a lot even with all that red. Plus, if your brother is with Azula, then the Fire Nation has to at least know about you; they might even have wanted posters out for you, we've seen some for Aang even in the Earth Kingdom."

Dante groaned, but deep down he knew he might have to pack away his favorite piece of clothing for a while. Truth be told, he did sort of stand out in his current attire, plus –even though the others didn't know it- his reputation as Redgrave might at least spark some curiosity if people saw his coat, which could lead them here to Appa, or even the entire group. Most of all though, he definitely didn't want to be found by Vergil yet, and he had the uncanny ability to show up at the most amazingly inconvenient times.

He nodded. "Fine, I guess I can live with ditching the coat for a little while."

"Alright then," said Aang, "let's go."

* * *

The five of them peeked over a small rock trench and saw a small house with clothes drying over some small underground vents. No one was outside at the moment, which left all the clothes open for the taking.

"I don't know about this, these clothes belong to somebody," said Aang.

"I call the silk robe!" exclaimed Katara, and charged out towards the clothesline. She ran by and grabbed a silk robe and dashed away.

"But if it's essential to our survival, I call the suit!"

The rest of them ran for the clothes as well. Dante was still a little upset over having to not wear his coat, and was sort of lost in his thoughts. He ran by and grabbed the nearest set of clothes he could and then joined the others.

A few minutes later they had all changed into their Fire Nation disguises, but Dante noticed something odd.

"Aw, damn it!"

"What is it?" asked Sokka.

"Aang and me grabbed the same damn set of clothes!"

It was true, Aang and Dante had both grabbed versions of the same suit; the only difference being Dante's was larger. The white haired swordsman immediately ripped off the belt of the suit, and unbuttoned the vest, letting the two sides hand limply like a jacket. After tying the red bandanna onto his head that he had been using since they had been on the Fire Nation ship, he sighed.

"Oh well, at least we look a little different from each other now. I still want my coat."

"Quit whining Pretty Boy, you can ditch the get up soon. Once the invasion starts it won't matter anyway."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Hey guys, how do I look?" said Katara, finally changed.

They all looked over and she was in her silk robes. Dante could clearly see Aang blushing and just wished those two would get it over with already; they'd been pirouetting around each other since he met them. It was getting a little annoying.

"Oh, your moms necklace," Aang pointed out.

Her expression saddened and she undid it from her neck. "Yeah, I guess it is pretty obvious its water tribe isn't it."

She looked down at it longingly one last time before stashing it away.

"Oh yeah, what're you going to do about your sword Dante?" asked Sokka.

"Rebellion? I've got it wrapped in this cloth right here," he said patting the roll of cloth over his shoulder, "I'll just carry it around like I'm carrying a sack under my arm or something. As long as nobody sees it, it won't matter."

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's head into town!" exclaimed Aang.

* * *

Once they were in town, they headed to a small market place. Katara bought a new necklace to replace her mothers while they were in disguise. Toph and Sokka bought new head pieces, and Aang kept Momo stashed away underneath his suit. Dante just stood there, already situated.

"I used to visit my friend Kuzon here a hundred years ago," said Aang, "so everybody just follow my lead and stay cool, or as they say in the Fire Nation, stay flamin'."

Aang marched around the corner and the four of them followed. Dante walked up next to Katara.

"Has he considered the fact that his 'style' might be really outdated?" he whispered.

She shrugged. "Probably not, but it's the best we have."

"We're going to die aren't we?"

Aang passed a man standing on the roadside. "Greetings my good hotman!"

The man looked confused but didn't argue. "Uh…hi…I guess."

The rest of the group passed him by and they headed further into town to grab some food. They came up on the nearest shop and stood outside the front door.

"Oh, we're going to a meat place?" asked Aang hesitantly.

"Come on Aang, everyone eats meat here, even the meat."

Aang shook his head. "No thanks, I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage."

"I better stay with 'em to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid…again," Dante sighed, and watched everyone else enter the store. They two stood out in the street, Aang greeting everyone that passed by, getting strange looks from the townspeople.

"You're way too friendly for your own good," said Dante.

"How is being friendly bad?" asked Aang.

"It draws attention for one."

Aang shook his head and chuckled. "You're being as paranoid as Sokka Dante, how much harm could come from greeting people?"

Just then two Fire Nation city guards came up to the both of them with hard looks on their faces. Dante wasn't sure of the specifics, but he was pretty sure some shit had just hit the fan.

"It's over, we caught you," the lead guard said sternly.

"Something along those lines," said Dante, looking down at Aang.

"It's obvious to everyone that neither of you belong here. The next time you want to play hooky, you might want to take off your uniforms."

The guard grabbed both of them by the shoulder and dragged them through town. Dante looked at Aang, who was looking back at him nervously.

"You couldn't just go into the meat shop could you?"

* * *

Both Dante and Aang were dragged off in the same direction for most of the way, but eventually their paths split. Aang was taken up a path to the left leading to a building on a higher cliff overlooking the shore; meanwhile Dante was taken to the right, up a path that led to the opposite side of the mountain. It looked to be about the same looking building he had saw Aang be taken to, but this one was just a bit bigger. He sighed; he remembered school from back when he still had a stable family and his brother wasn't a power hungry psychopath, and he wasn't exactly eager to go back. In fact, he took back his thoughts from before, he sort of wished Vergil were here right now; fighting him would be way less trouble that what he was about to be put through.

They remaining guards pulled him by his shoulders through the gate and into the school grounds. They allowed him to stop at a garbage container on their way inside. Along the way they had inquired about the huge piece of cloth he was carrying around. In reality he still had Rebellion on him, but he couldn't exactly let them know he was carrying around a huge broadsword, so he told them it was just some trash he was about to throw away. A lame lie, but they were stupid enough to fall for it, so he stashed Rebellioin and its holding cloth away in a garbage container. He'd come pick it up again after the day was over.

Now he was inside the building, and while the scenery was nice –it really was, plenty of red- he wasn't exactly ecstatic to be there. They stopped in the middle of the hallway and pushed open the door. On the other side was a classroom of about twenty, all of them around seventeen or eighteen years old, around his age. The teacher, a gruff looking old man with a gray beard reaching down from his chin to his chest, looked over and seemed to be analyzing him.

"Well, what do we have here?" he said harshly.

He came up and inspected him further, circling around him. Dante eyed him cautiously the entire time. The guards closed the doors and headed off, leaving Dante to the class and the teacher.

"Well it's obvious you're not from the Fire Nation, I'd say you're from the colonies. Of course, with the quality of your etiquette, I could easily have even mistaken you for a Water Tribe barbarian at a distance. In the Fire Nation we bow to our elders, like so."

The old man leaned forward and his right hand clenched into a fist while his left was made flat and put up against his clenched fist. Dante wanted to groan and growl and tell the old codger to shove it, but remembered that if he made a scene, it just cause trouble for everyone. He barred his teeth and bowed.

"Good enough, now remove that bandanna, we don't allow such coverings indoors."

This guy was already a master of pissing him off. He definitely couldn't let anyone see his white hair; he was practically the only person on the planet besides Vergil with white hair, it was a dead give away, and he couldn't risk having even one person hear about him after something like Ba Sing Se and then identifying him. He was sure the Fire Nation government was shaking that battle around like a torch in a black cave.

"Uh…I've got some…scars under there. Pretty nasty; I don't think anybody wants to stare at those all day."

The teacher sighed but nodded his head. "Very well, I suppose I'll allow it. Now, why don't you introduce yourself to the class."

Dante stood in front of the class trying to think of a name. '_Alright Dante, think! Can't use your name, they'll definitely know you're not Fire Nation at all. Wait, what was the friend of Aang's he mentioned…uh…K-…Kuz…Kuzon! Right, Kuzon!'_

"Uh, Kuzon, my name's Kuzon."

"Very well Kuzon, there is an empty desk in the second row near the window, you may be seated there."

He didn't need to be told twice, he'd had enough of being the center of attention. He walked to the second row window seat and sat down like he normally would on Appa or really anywhere else.

"Kuzon, what do you think you are doing?" asked the teacher.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I'm sitting; unless the term 'take your seat' means something different here than in the colonies," he said, finally able to fire back a sarcastic remark. It felt good. Some of the students snickered and laughed quietly.

"Kuzon, we do not sit with our legs crossed, we sit with our legs folded underneath each other with our hands on our laps."

Dante complied and sat identical to the rest of the students. "You'll have to forgive me; the schools at the colonies must have just forgotten that sitting cross-legged makes you learn less."

The class snickered again and the teacher growled. "Yes well, I believe you've interrupted class long enough Kuzon, if you don't mind we'll return to the lesson."

Dante sighed and prepared himself for what could quite possibly be the most boring day of his life in a long, long time. About a minute into the mind numbing boredom, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over and saw a guy with short brown hair and a girl with the same shade of brown but long enough to reach slightly passed her shoulders leaning towards him. They both had amber colored eyes.

"Hey, that was pretty cool the way you messed with the teacher like that," the guy whispered.

"Yeah," said the girl, "you should come eat with us after lunch breaks."

Dante shrugged. "Sure, why not."

* * *

One unbelievably dull lesson later, the class was let out into the courtyard to each lunch. From what Dante saw it was just about the only time of day where these guys got to do anything that wasn't completely dictated like a military operation. He walked out into the sun and stretched his arms and cracked away the cricks on his neck. Thank all goodness in the universe he was able to walk around again.

"Kuzon!" he heard someone call. For a minute he forgot that it was his cover name, but then his brain jumpstarted and he looked over. The two that had been talking to him from the classroom were sitting under a tree neatly planted in a square plot on the ground. Dante walked over sat down against the wooden plant, next to the pair.

"Hey Kuzon, so how did you like your first day here so far?" asked the girl.

He shrugged. "Surprisingly, I've had worse."

"Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves," said the boy, "I'm Shin, and that's Lin."

"Shin and Lin; so are you two…"

They seemed to catch onto what he was implying and both shook their heads.

"No, it's not like that; we're just twins," said Shin.

The mention of twins caused Dante to almost grimace for a moment. "Well I guess that's something we've got in common then, I've got a twin brother."

"Really, well where is he?" asked Lin.

"Not entirely sure, but I'll find him eventually. The last time I saw him we…argued a lot."

Shin chuckled. "Yeah, been there; me and Lin get into fights sometimes to, but we get over it eventually, so you and your brother should be able to mend the fence."

Dante nodded, but he knew it was a lot more complicated than they made it out to be. After all, Lin and Shin weren't on opposing ends of a war and trying to kill each other. They sensed his discomfort with the subject and changed it.

"So, schools almost over for us, what are you going to do after this?" asked Shin.

"Well what are you gonna do?" asked Dante.

"Well, Shin wants to be an artist, but I'm going to go to the capital city to join the domestic army. All the best soldiers are trained in the capital, and I want to be the best, so right after I'm finally done with school, I'm taking a ship to the capital."

Shin laughed. "Yeah, not that we really need a big domestic army anymore; I mean, the war is pretty much over."

"Maybe Shin, but there are still rumors of rebels and stuff in the Earth Kingdom, so the fighting isn't completely over, and I hear they might be deploying domestic forces for peace keeping. Plus, I heard this story from one of the soldiers here in town, about this battle in the Earth Kingdom two years ago. They say there was this battalion of firebenders occupying a village on the edge of their border, and in one night, all but two of them were wiped out, and by just one guy. They call him Redgrave, because he wore this long red coat, and I hear he also had cloud white hair and wielded this huge sword."

Shin scoffed. "Oh come on Lin, you actually believe that?"

"Maybe, I mean, it's not completely impossible!"

"I'll believe it when I meet this Redgrave guy in person. The only person who could possibly take on all those firebenders alone was the avatar, and he's dead."

Dante just tried his best to stay quiet and out of the conversation. The last thing he needed was to be sucked into a debate over whether or not he himself existed. Of course, they didn't know the man who was Redgrave was sitting right across from them, and he liked it that way.

"What to you think Kuzon?" asked Lin.

And there it was. Damn his luck to the demon realm.

"I'm leanin' with Shin, no way the guy exists."

Lin pouted but it was short lived. Everyone was moving back in for the second end of the day. Dante groaned; the freedom was so short lived.

"Well, I guess its back to the grind," said Shin, and the three of them headed back in.

* * *

Dante was about ready to stab himself when the day finally ended, or at least he would have if he still had Rebellion on him. Speaking of which, he was on his way to getting Rebellion from the trash container near the back of the school at that very moment. He couldn't wait to get out of that building, and practically burst right out the doors. He took a left the second he got out of the building and wandered behind one of the buildings to find the container he'd left his beloved sword in.

Lin and Shin meanwhile, were going to see if he wanted to walk back into town with them, but he was the first one out of the classroom and they didn't get a chance to ask him. Lin ran after him, but Shin just sighed and walked calmly down the hallway. The Fire Nation girl got outside just in time to see Dante heading for the trash container behind on of the school grounds smaller buildings, and wondered what he was up to.

She walked up to the corner of the building and peered around the stone. At first she didn't see him anywhere, but she heard rustling around and watched cautiously. After a moment, she saw Dante, or Kuzon as she knew him, burst out of the garbage container with something in hand. She as curious as to what he was doing and decided to confront him

"Kuzon, why are you in the trash, and what is that?"

His head whipped over to face her and his expression was one of surprise and anxiousness.

"Uh…nothing."

He hopped out of the trash and hid the cloth that held Rebellion behind him. Lin tried to look behind him to get a better look at it, but Dante turned in the opposite direction to keep it out of view.

"Come on Kuzon, what is that?"

"Like I said, it's nothin'. Sorry, but I gotta run, I need to get home and all."

With that, Dante pushed past her and ran off. Lin went after him, but bumped into her brother along the way, and she lost him.

"Ow…Lin, what was that for!?"

She rubbed her head and sat up. "I was going after Kuzon, he was acting really weird and ran off. I lost him after I ran into you."

"Well, so maybe he's a weird guy, he still seemed nice enough," defended Shin.

"I don't know…I think maybe we should follow him tomorrow after school. Something about him just seems a little out of place."

* * *

Now that Dante was free of school, he went out looking for Aang. He didn't find him in or near the school he'd been dragged to, so that left him nothing to do but search outward from the building. It took him forever, not because he was far away, but because when he found him, he was playing a game called 'hide and explode'. He didn't even want to know about the rules entailed in that particular game, but told Aang to quit being an idiot after he refused to go back to the cave, and Dante had to literally drag him away from the game.

By the time the two of them finally got back to the cave it was well past dark. As soon as they got inside, Katara assaulted them with questions.

"Where have you two been, we've been worried sick!?"

Aang just smiled. "I got invited to play with some kids after school!"

"And I had to drag him back after class," grunted Dante.

Sokka shot up out of no where. "After WHAT!?"

"We both enrolled in Fire Nation schools!" said Aang happily.

"More like we got caught by guards who thought we were students."

"Captured, enrolled, same difference; either way me and Dante decided we're going back tomorrow."

"Unfortunately," the swordsman groaned.

Sokka just stood with a dumbstruck face. "Enrolled in WHAT!?"

After than he pretty much passed out.

"I'll wake him up," groaned Dante again, walking over to Sokka. The swordsman didn't waste any time, and started slapping the Water Tribe warrior silly.

"Ow, ow, okay I'm awake!"

"Good, I was afraid I'd have to start punching you."

Everyone took a minute to take a seat around the fire they had going, and they discussed the situation.

"Look you two, I'm trying to be mature and not shoot down your idea, but it sounds really terrible."

"It is terrible, but it's also effective," said Dante.

"We got out outfits," said Toph, "what do you need to go to _school_ for?"

Aang sat forward. "Every minute I'm in that classroom I'm learning new things about the Fire Nation. I already have a picture of Fire Lord Ozai," he said holding up an ink drawing, "and here's one made out of noodles!"

Sokka glanced to the side and stroked his chin. "Impressive I admit, but I still think it's too dangerous."

Aang smirked. "Then I guess I'll never find out about the secret river then, it goes right to the Fire Lords palace and we were supposed to learn about it in class tomorrow."

"Plus," added Dante, "the one part of class I actually paid attention to was history. The class has been going over battle tactics from earlier in the war, and some of them are still used today. It might help to know a few of their tricks for the invasion. I even took notes on the ones we went over today."

He passed a paper to Sokka and he looked down at them, still thinking it over.

"Hm…I am a fan of secret rivers and battle tactics. Fine, we'll stay a few more days."

"Flame-yo hotman!" shouted Aang.

As the young avatar ran off, Sokka looked to his sister in confusion.

"Flame-yo?"

* * *

Once again, Dante stared the gates of hell in the face. He really honestly considered going back, but he promised he'd take notes of more battle tactics in history, so he was pretty much stuck with showing up. He'd at least taken the precaution of leaving Rebellion back at the cave unlike last time. Lin had come way too close to seeing the broadsword, and he was sure he'd have to deal with her questions today. Speaking of Lin…

"Hey Kuzon, good morning!" she shouted.

Dante turned around as he walked up the hill to the gates of the school and saw here and Shin running up to him. They both stopped as they caught up to him and panted.

"Don't wear yourselves out; we've got a whole day to sit through."

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine," wheezed Shin.

Once they'd caught their breaths, the three of them walked into the school building and down the hall. Once in the classroom they took their seats and waited for the teacher to begin class.

All through the rest of the day, Dante was getting feeling he was being watched. He wasn't sure if it was just paranoia or if it was in instincts trying to tell him something, but he was getting a weird vibe today. He suspected Lin might be getting a little cautious ever since she caught him looking for Rebellion yesterday, but he doubted she'd do much, and in a few days he'd be long gone and never see her again.

In reality, Lin was in fact watching him. She wasn't sure why, but there was just something about him that didn't feel right. It wasn't necessarily bad, but she could tell he was hiding a lot, and she wanted to know why. Her growing curiosity only reinforced her resolve to tail him after school.

She'd find out who Kuzon really was.

* * *

It was finally the end of the day, and Dante was more than ready to leave. He had the notes he needed, and Aang said he'd meet him at the crossroad between the two schools so he wouldn't have to go on a three hour expedition just to find him. With the school day at an end, Dante headed off into the courtyard.

A short distance behind him, Lin was already in pursuit mode, and stealthily trailing him…well stealthy for her anyway. Shin noticed his sisters antics and caught up with her.

"Lin, what do you think you're doing?"

She glared at him for almost making her shriek and blow her cover. "I'm following Kuzon like I said, what does it look like I'm doing?"

"Look, we went over this, there's nothing weird about him. If you want to run around stalking him like a crazy person, fine, but leave me out of it. Don't come crying to me when he catches you."

She pouted, and jogged away to try and catch up. She followed him all the way down to the bottom of the mountain where she saw him meet up with a younger kid with brown hair. It looked like they were walking and talking together, so she tried to get in closer to hear what they were saying after they made their way back into town.

"…so I decided to throw a dance party."

He shook his head. "There's no way the guys are gonna go for that. Sokka's too paranoid, Katara's too cautious, and Toph's too…well, Toph."

He looked up at him. "What about you, what do you think?"

"While I usually make it my philosophy to never say no to a party, since it's a dance party and I don't dance, I'm callin' a rain check on the off chance this crazy scheme of yours goes through. I'm not shootin' it down though, maybe a party is all those kids need to loosen up."

"Well right after the conference I'm gonna start spreading the word."

"Right, well I'll probably just train out in the back of the cave for a while then, I've got to either way anyway. Good luck getting the others to agree to it though, I swear Sokka's so up tight if you shoved a lump of coal up his ass, in a week you'd have a diamond."

Lin fell behind a bit and the rest of their conversation fell out of earshot, but now she was even more curious. She was pretty sure she knew which cave they were talking about, and if they were having some sort of…secret party there tonight, she wouldn't have to do all this sneaking around to find out where Kuzon was going. She'd just follow the trail of people. Plus he said he wouldn't even be in the party, he'd be outside behind the cave training. Maybe he was a firebender, who knows, but she would head to that cave tonight for some answers.

* * *

Dante was sitting atop of the newly earthbent stages that Toph made. Aang, despite Dante's doubts, was able to convince everyone to go through with his party idea. As far as he knew, most of the people from his class were coming, which was pretty impressive given the amount of time.

Toph had just made a stage for the band and music, Katara was working on a water fountain, and Sokka was carrying supplies. Dante had been carrying a few things around to, but he finished before Sokka, so now he was taking a bit of a break.

"I can't believe we're actually throwing a dance party, it just feels so…silly," said Sokka.

"Join the club; I thought for sure _you_ would have at least said no," agreed Dante.

"Oh come on you two, don't think of it as a party, think of it as a cultural even celebrating the art of fancy footwork!"

Dante couldn't help but think that somehow, someway, this was all going to blow up in their faces; they just had that kind of luck. Either way, he wouldn't be around to see it happen, he was going to be training in the back, working on some sword moves.

Suddenly Toph stiffened. "They're coming, everyone stop bending!"

Dante hopped off his seat and went to Appa. "I'll take him out back with me, I'll keep an eye on him."

"Thanks Dante," called Aang.

He nodded and ran up the bison's tail. "Come on big guy, time to go incognito for a while."

The six legged beat groaned but headed out the passageway. Meanwhile Dante was digging through his stuff in the saddle. After a moment of moving some things out of the way, he found what he was looking for. His sword and a change of clothes; how he missed his clothes. He held up his old red coat and smiled.

"Hello old friend, did ya miss me?"

He threw off his school uniform and threw back on his favorite red coat and pants. After shedding his shoes in favor of his clunky boots, he whipped off the bandanna that kept his hair hidden, and freed Rebellion.

"Oh yeah, this feels good."

* * *

Lin walked in the night, following the crowd of students to the cave on the coast. With so many people around, she doubted anyone would notice her, so when they got close enough, she snuck away from the main group, and started to circle around the cave. She could hear faint music around her, obviously coming from the cave.

As she trekked across the rocky terrain, a new sound started to fill the air in place of the music. It sounded like smashing rocks and whistling metal, almost like someone was swinging a sword. When she finally made it around the cave, she dove behind a rock and looked out at the empty flat land. At least, she thought it was empty.

Out of no where, five large rocks that were just sitting out in the open suddenly exploded in half. Dust and debris flew everywhere and clouded together to create one giant plume. As the dust settled, she could see a figure coming into form. At first all she could see was a roughly human figure, but as more and more debris cleared from her view, she could see in more detail.

Whoever it was, they had a long red coat waving in the wind. She could see limp white hair as pure as the clouds in a sunny day, and over they had a huge onyx colored broadsword over their shoulder. Wait a second…red coat, white hair, big sword?

"R-redgrave," said Lin in awe, probably louder than she should have. Her heart stopped when he turned his head towards her, had he heard her?

"Hey Aang, that you?" he asked.

Lin straightened up a bit when she heard his voice. Was that…Kuzon? He did say he would be back here, and here was this guy who looked an awful lot like she imagined Redgrave would. She decided to risk it and stood up.

"Kuzon, is that you?"

"L…Lin?"

She nodded and came out from behind the rock fully. She approached him slowly until she was standing across from him. His white hair drooped down in his face, and his red coat hung open, revealing a very toned body. The school uniforms didn't do him justice. Lin shook her head, unable to break her stare.

"K-kuzon, what is this?" she asked when she was able to focus again.

"It depends; will you accept 'nothing' as an answer again?"

"No, I won't, now explain to me what you're doing. I mean, you look just like…well…"

"Redgrave?" he finished.

She nodded her head. "Yeah actually, you do; the white hair, the red coat. Kuzon what-"

"Look Lin, first off my name isn't Kuzon, its Dante, and second, I really wish you hadn't shown up here. Either way I guess you caught me; you're a good person though, I can tell. Can you promise not to tell anyone else about me? Can I trust you?"

She honestly wasn't sure. One side of her wanted to say yes and keep his secret. On the other hand though, she was an aspiring soldier in the Fire Nation domestic army, and she'd have to be a complete fool not to recognize the legendary Redgrave. He was criminal in the Fire Nation. Even if his very existence was doubted, he was still a criminal.

When she looked at him though, she didn't see Redgrave, or…Dante. She saw Kuzon; the new student from the colonies with a great sense of humor and an interest in history. She couldn't bring herself to rat him out, even if he was a criminal; she had gotten to know him a bit in the two days he'd been at school, and he wasn't a bad person. Strange yes, but not bad.

"Yes…yes you can."

He smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

There was a short silence before Lin blurted out a question: "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"The story about you wiping out a whole firebender battalion is true isn't it? If it is then why did you do it, why would you slaughter five-hundred people?"

Dante sighed. "I'm not a butcher Lin, I didn't just do it for no reason. There was this little girl, and I wanted to save her, it just turned out I had to save her from five-hundred firebenders that wanted to kill her."

"You killed five-hundred soldiers for one girl?" she asked in shock.

"I killed five-hundred trained elite soldiers to save one unarmed and defenseless little girl who was caught up in a situation she had no control over and knew nothin' about. If that's what you're askin', then yes, I did. I'd do it again to. Don't think it was a nationality thing though; if it had been a kid from the Fire Nation bein' attacked by Earthbenders I would have done the same."

She looked down in shame for a moment, realizing he was right. She would have done the same as well. No child, regardless of nationality, deserved to be needlessly killed; it wasn't right.

"It's okay, I agree with what you did. It was the right thing to do."

She stiffened when she felt his hand grasp hers and looked up to him.

"Come on, let's sit down."

She simply nodded. Dante led her to two of the rocks he'd sliced in half and they used those as chairs. Lin sat across from him, only about three feet apart. For a while neither of them said anything. Dante didn't see any reason to speak, and Lin just didn't have any clue as to what to say. They sat in the moonlight as the waves beat against the shore. Dante could still hear music coming from the cave. The music suddenly switched; originally it was a fast paced song, but it seemed to have slowed considerably.

Dante smirked and stood up, extending his hand to Lin.

"May I have this dance milady?"

At firsts Lin didn't know what to say, but her senses soon returned to her and she nodded. She clasped his hand in hers as she stood.

"You know…I thought you didn't dance," said Lin, a bit more playfulness in her voice than before.

Dante chuckled. "Well, there are a few rules to Dante."

"Really, and what are the rules of Dante?"

"The first rule of Dante is that Dante doesn't dance."

Lin nodded with a smirk on her face. "Alright, and what's the second rule of Dante?"

"The second rule of Dante is that the first rule of Dante can be overturned if there's a pretty girl involved, and since we're dancing right now, I'd say the first rule of Dante has been pretty thoroughly overturned."

Lin giggled and tried her hardest not to blush. "You know you're a lot more charming than you were at school."

"Then I guess I'm a good actor to."

They both kept moving slowly together until the music suddenly cut off. Dante and Lin both looked over at the back entrance of the cave, as if it was going to answer their question.

"Why did the music stop?" asked Lin.

Dante slipped away from her. "I'm not sure, hold on a second."

The swordsman dashed over to the cave and headed inside. About halfway in he ran into everyone hurrying out in the opposite direction.

"What's up, where are you guys goin'?"

"We need to leave now!" shouted Sokka.

Dante nodded. "Uh, right, I'll meet you guys outside then."

He rushed out ahead of the group and jumped over a few rocks to get back to Lin, who was sitting patiently.

"Are you alright Dante?"

"Yeah, but listen, change of plans; I've gotta get outta here now. I know this is sorta sudden, but I've gotta leave."

Lin slowly smiled and nodded. "It's okay; I wouldn't want you to get into any trouble. Just one last thing before you head off though."

"What's that?"

She leaned in suddenly and wrapped her arms around him. Now it was Dante's turn to be surprised, and before could react at all, she let go and stepped back.

"Just be safe out there 'Mr. Redgrave'."

Dante chuckled and nodded.

"Well go on," she urged with a laugh, "aren't you escaping?"

"Right, I'll see ya again sometime Lin."

"You'd better!" she called after him.

Dante ran across the beach and a few rocks later, found everyone aboard Appa. With a swift running jump, he flipped in the air and landed on the bison's back no problem. He settled down into the saddle and removed Rebellion from his back, placing it down for a while.

"What took you so long?" asked Toph.

He grinned as he sat relaxed. "Nothin'…nothin' at all."

Appa groaned and leaped into the air, taking flight into the night sky. After they were in a stead flight path, Dante peered over his shoulder back at the shore of the island. It was too dark and too far to see anything in detail, but somehow he knew Lin was watching him leave.

He settled down further, intending to get some sleep, with a smile on his face.

**

* * *

Okay, so like I said, kind of a filler. I was a little iffy on the end to, I wasn't sure if that was actually gonna work out, but you guys be the judge on that. I might bring Lin back later to, but your opinions also have sway on that. Ultimately it's my decision, but I like to hear your thoughts anyway. At any rate, the next chapter will be much better. **

**There will be a ****special guest appearance featuring someone from ****Devil May Cry,**** so look forward to that. **

**Review.  
**


	7. Chapter 7: The Beast Below

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 7

**The Beast Below**

Chapter seven is here, and it's long! For those you who don't know, this is the Painted Lady episode, and the ending was a bitch to write, let me tell ya. You'll see why when our special surprise guest pops up near the end.

I'd really like to thank Infinite Freedom for helping me smooth out the details with what I'm planning on doing both in this chapter and in a few others. He's been a big help.

* * *

After two days of flight, the group found a river that led further into the Fire Nation. Stealth was still key, so instead of having Appa fly, the bison took to swimming through the water. Normally it wouldn't be such an issue, but due to certain circumstances…

"Ah, this river stinks like hell! Aang, get the hell outta there, I don't want ya growin' a tail and a third eye!" shouted Dante.

"Hold on a second Dante!" he called back.

Aang took in a deep breath and plunged under the…water, and popped up again in a different spot.

"Momo!"

As soon as the lemur flew over to him, Aang disappeared under the water again and popped up again.

"Oh, Momo!"

Aang popped under for a third time, but Momo was able to catch him this time.

"Hey, you got me buddy!"

With that, Aang sprung up from out of the water via airbending, and landed squarely on Appa's saddle.

"Hey guys, I think this river's polluted."

After a quick airbending technique, he was free of the murky water, but had splattered it on everyone else.

"What was your first clue, oh wise one?" remarked Dante as he tried to wipe off the muck from his clothes. Aang used airbending again and cleaned everyone else up.

"Well that explains why I can't catch a fish, because normally my fishing is _'off the hook'_! Get it, like a fishing hook!?"

Dante sighed and shook his head. "Sokka, just…just stop talking. It's getting a little sad now."

Katara looked over the edge of Appa's saddle and into the river. "It looks like we'll have to go somewhere else to get food."

As she said that, a very long scroll rolled out down the saddle. "Assuming it doesn't interfere with Sokka's master schedule."

Dante sighed again. "I'm never giving him paper again."

"Hm…it's doable, but that means only two potty breaks today!"

Aang climbed onto Appa's head and looked further down the river. "Hey, maybe we could get food there!"

He was pointing to a village at the end of the river. They didn't really have anywhere else to go at the moment, so they agreed on it and headed for sure. After they found a decent campsite, Aang grabbed a large blanket of moss and threw it over Appa.

"Now you look like a little hill with horns, bye buddy!"

Dante examined Appa's disguise. "A little horn with hills; yeah, no one would ever notice that."

Still, he didn't bother arguing with Aang's logic –or lack thereof- and followed them towards the edge of the river. As they came up to the cliff overlooking the river and the village, they could get a better look at it. It was a network of wooden platforms and bridges floating in the river. Next to it was a narrow but long plateau that forked the river for a distance. Toph moved her feet around and had a funny look on her face.

"I don't feel anything, where's this village?"

"It's in the middle of the river," pointed Sokka.

"It sure is!"

They all looked down and saw an old man working a small dock, most likely used to ferry people to and from the village.

"My name's Dock, mind if I ask who you are."

"We're…um, from the Earth Kingdom colonies," answered Katara.

"Oh, colonials; well hop on, I'll give ya a ride into town!"

* * *

They were making good progress on Docks raft, and they had almost reached down despite the murk in the water slowing their progress. Dock seemed to know how to navigate in it fairly well.

"Why do you guys live on the river?" asked Katara.

Dock swung his rowing pole out of the water and over their heads, forcing them to duck lest they be smacked upside the head. "Because we're a fishing town, at least that's how it was before the factory moved in."

They all looked over and saw the huge metal behemoth. It was built into the cliffside and probably pretty deep under the water to. It spewed smoke and released slug into the river; it was an environmental disaster in slow motion.

"The army makes its metal there. Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river, and now our little village is struggling to survive."

They were silent the rest of the trip in. They eventually came to a stop at another dock and headed into town.

"Thanks for the ride," called Aang.

Meanwhile Dante was taking a look around the village. Calling it a slum would be too generous a term. People were literally starving in the streets, or at least their river equivalent of streets. The people barely moved at all, like they would break apart at the slightest motion.

"Look at this place, so sad. We have to do something to help," said Katara.

Sokka immediately jumped in to protest. "No, we can't waste our time here; we have a bigger mission that we need to stay focused on. These people are on their own."

Katara grabbed his shoulder as he walked away and forced him back around. "These people are starving and you're turning your back on them? How can you be so cold and heartless?"

"I'm not turning my back I'm just being realistic! We can't go around helping every rinky-dink town we run into, we'll be helping them all by taking out the Fi-"

Sokka was interrupted as Dante clamped a hand over the water tribe warrior's big mouth. "Sokka, shut up before you blow our cover."

He looked to Katara after he let go of Sokka's mouth. "Look Katara, as much as I really, _really_ hate to admit it, I'm sidin' with Sokka on this one. We got somewhere to be and not a lot of time to get there; if we weren't on the clock I'd be all for it, but blabber-mouth is right, we can't afford to stop and help every last person or town we come across."

Katara looked down in dismay, knowing she was being outvoted.

"I guess so," she sighed.

"Let's just get what we need and go," said Aang.

After that conversation was finished, they all headed for the market at the center of the village. Dante wasn't expecting much, considering the town's pathetic condition, but it didn't hurt to be a little optimistic now and again…right?

They came up to a small shop with an old man working the counter; Sokka rung the bell and they were welcomed by a familiar face.

"Hey Dock, you work here to?"

"I'm not Dock, I'm Shu; Dock's my brother."

They all just gave him a weird look.

"But we just saw you, you're even wearing the same clothes, the only difference is the hat," Aang pointed out.

"Dock works on the dock, that's why they call him Dock, and I work at the store, that's why they call me Shu," he explained.

"Uh…I don't get it."

"Me neither!"

Then he just sunk under the counter for a moment before and sprung back up with a wooden crate.

"What can I get ya?"

They all peered in the crate and examined what passed for food. It consisted of sludge covered clams and partially mutated fish that created a mixture you could usually only find in a dying man's vomit.

"I'll throw in a special deal; if you buy three fish, I'll throw in a clam for free!"

Sokka poked one of the clams and Katara and Aang recoiled, and Dante felt his stomach lurch. He looked over at Toph, for the first time envious of her inability to see.

"You should be extremely glad you can't see right now," he whispered

"Is the food that bad?"

"Worse than you can possibly imagine."

She shrugged. "I don't know, I can imagine a lot."

Dante shook his head, and returned his concentration to their shopping, but saw that they had already decided fish, which was about the smartest move they could have made short of turning it down entirely. The man, who Dante at first thought was Shu, was now calling himself Dock, and the swordsman came to the same conclusion as everyone else in the group: this guys was bat-shit crazy.

Just as they were leaving, a small boy ran up and tugged on Katara's robe. Dante looked back and saw her give him one of their fish, and waited for her to catch up.

"I know what you're going to say, and I don't care," she said sternly.

"I wasn't gonna to say anything. Katara, trust me, I want to help them out just as much as you do. After my mother died, I was on my own for a long time; life for me was a lot like that kids, begging for food and money. I learned on my own though, that you can't always wait around for people to help you, sometimes you've gotta buck up and do things for yourself for a change."

"You weren't being oppressed by a military instillation practically in your own front lawn though, these people are. They can't help themselves because there's nothing to help themselves with; their only source of food and money is gone. There's absolutely nothing they can do."

He shook his head. "Look, I know it's tough, but there's no way for us to help these guys for the long term, just let it go."

Katara huffed in frustration and walked faster to get ahead of him. He knew his words had just gone in one ear and straight out the other.

* * *

That night they set up a campfire with a large pot to make stew. Toph, Katara, and Aang worked on filtering the water, while Dante was skinning the fish. Meanwhile, Sokka was going over his all mighty schedule.

"Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule, it's take some serious finagling to get us back on track," he complained.

"Finagle away oh schedule master," mocked Toph.

Sokka laid out the schedule sheet for everyone to look at. "Well for starters, it looks like we'll need to wake up forty-three minutes earlier every day."

"No," stated Dante adamantly.

"Look, we only have a few weeks to get to the Fire Lord in time for the invasion in the eclipse, which by the way only lasts for eight minutes! And we just lost a whole day, so if we want to make up the time and stay on schedule, we have to wake up early!"

"Well I'm with Dante, I'm not waking up early," said Toph.

Sokka crossed his arms. "Or we could just cut out all of our eating breaks."

"What?"

"No way!"

"Forget it."

"Quit talking."

Sokka stroked his chin, as if he didn't even hear the rest of them. "I got it, how's this; from now on we'll take food breaks and potty breaks at the same time!"

Aang spit out his soup in disgust at the very thought, and Katara and Toph both stuck out their tongues. Sokka was subsequently knocked over when a soup bowl collided with his head, splattering soup everywhere.

They all looked over and Dante stood up, heading for Appa. "Well, my work here is done and I lost my appetite, so good night everybody."

Sokka sat up and rubbed his head before growling and glaring at Dante, who was now on top of the bison grabbing his bedroll.

"Hey, it might be gross but it's efficient!"

"Don't care, now shut up or the next thing I throw at you'll be a lot sharper than a soup bowl!"

Sokka growled in frustration again, and picked up his schedule. "Either way, we have to leave here tomorrow morning."

With that, he stormed off. No one noticed the look on Katara's face.

* * *

The next day, everyone was awoken by the sound of a certain flying bison's groans and moans of discomfort. Katara was currently tending to him, and everyone else was eager to find out what was wrong.

"What's wrong Katara?" asked Aang.

"I think Appa's sick."

Sokka shot up out of bed instantly after hearing that. "What; Appa's sick!? That's awful!"

"Wow Sokka," said Toph, "I didn't realize you cared so much."

"Of course I care!"

He whipped his schedule out from under his shirt and stared at it in dismay. "I might as well throw this thing away now!"

Everyone gave him angry stares and Dante summoned Rebellion to his hand. "I'm giving you a ten second head start, use the time wisely."

Trying to avoid any possible mutilation, Sokka immediately latched onto Appa and began petting him. "And of course I'm worried because my big furry friend doesn't feel well!"

Dante sighed. "Good enough."

With that over with, they turned their attention back to Appa.

"He must have gotten sick from the polluted water," concluded Toph.

Aang observed him for a second and shook his head. "He doesn't look sick. You okay buddy?"

The bison groaned and opened his mouth. Aang noticed something odd in his mouth and yanked out his tongue, which they discovered, was purple.

"Well that's definitely not something you see every day, which I suppose means a lot coming from us," commented Dante.

"His tongue is purple, that can't be good! Katara, can you heal him?"

She bent over and observed Appa's tongue. "It looks like he could use some medicine, maybe we could find what we need in town."

* * *

When they arrived back in town, it was like they'd entered a completely different village. The people were lively and moving; kids were playing, adults were laughing, everything seemed fine and carefree. The sudden switch in attitude even confused Dante; how the hell did this happen over night?

"Is it just me, or is something different around here?" asked Toph.

"Are the people…happier?"

They came up to the store and saw Shu at the front counter.

"Hey Shu," asked Sokka, "What's with everyone today?"

Shu downed some soup from a ladle and looked at them happily. "Something amazing happened last night; food was delivered to our village by a mysterious and wonderful person: The Painted Lady."

"The painted who now?" asked Katara.

"The Painted Lady," he said as he set down a wooden figurine of said lady.

"She's part of our town's lore, they say she's a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need. I always thought she was just a legend until now."

Sokka crossed his arms victoriously. "See, we didn't need to help them, they already had someone to help them!"

He turned back to Shu. "All we need is medicine for our sick friend."

"Medicine; sorry, all our medicine goes to the factory. That's why there are so many sick people in our village."

Katara looked to Sokka. "It looks like we need to stay another night so Appa can rest."

Sokka sighed. "I guess you're right."

He turned back to Shu. "You got any more food to sell?"

"Do ya want the one headed or two headed fish?"

Sokka actually thought about it, and then chose the two headed fish. They all gave him a blank look.

"What, you get more for your money that way!?"

Dante buried his face in his palm. "Sokka…you are dumbest supposed smart person that I have ever met."

* * *

The next day the group was back in town, and the store, again. Sokka leaned up against the counter. "Hi Dock, is Shu around?"

"Let me check."

The old man headed in the back for a split second, and then came out again wearing a white hat.

"Hey there, back again are ya!"

Toph shoved Sokka out of the way, much to Dante's amusement. "We need more food. Our friend is still sick and we can't leave until he's better."

Shu laid out a platter of old clams. "Well that's too bad; maybe if you're lucky the Painted Lady will come by and heal your friend."

Sokka scoffed. "Yeah, and maybe she'll make us a midnight snack and we'll all have a sing-along."

"Yeah, maybe; you know last night she visited us again. She healed most of our sick folks."

"Is that why this place seems so festive?" asked Aang.

"Yup, it's all because of the Painted Lady."

Katara looked up at a newly erected statue of the Painted Lady in awe. "Isn't amazing how much a village can be effected by just one lady…er, spirit."

"Well I hope she comes back every night, because this place would go right back to the way it was."

She looked back at him in disappointment. "Why would you say that, look how much better off these people are."

"Yeah sure, now," said Dante, "but remember what I said Katara, you can't always wait for people to help you. These guys can't fend for themselves; they're totally dependent on that Painted Lady. If that spirit, whoever she might be, really wanted to lend a hand, she'd take out that factory. That's the only thing I can think that'd solve this place's problems permanently."

"Yeah, she'd be all like: _Woooooooo_, **Kaboom**!" said Sokka.

"Actually spirit magic doesn't work that way Sokka. It's more like: **Whooooooooooo**, _pew pew,_" jumped in Aang.

They both put their arms over each other shoulders and imitated spirit magic like only two idiots can. Katara marched off in a huff, and headed for the dock. Dante sure as hell wasn't going to be seen anywhere near those two and he had a few things he wanted to confirm, so he headed for the dock as well.

He walked up next to Katara and looked out at the murky water. "So…how long do you think you can keep helping these people, or have you not gotten that far yet?"

She looked at him like he had just said the moon was made out of cheese. _(A/N: I am in no way, shape, or form denying the theory that the moon is made out of cheese, because it totally is.)_

"What are you talking about; the Painted Lady is helping these people, not me."

Dante scoffed. "Right, well let's go over the evidence shall we. The most obvious flaw in that argument is that all this didn't even start happenin' until we got here. Moreover, I'm startin' to notice a trend here; we first get here and the people need food, then the next day, they get food. Then they need medicine, and the next day their sick are healed. You were there both times Shu mentioned those things. Plus, the Painted Lady is a river spirit, and you're a waterbender, that would make it pretty damn easy to pass yourself off as a river spirit. Should I keep going?"

Katara glared up at him. "You're reading way too far into this Dante, why can't you just accept that fact that these people are getting the help they need?"

"Because eventually we'll have to leave and then these guys are right back to square one again."

"I keep telling you I'm not the Painted Lady, now lay off Dante," she said as she stormed off again.

* * *

That night, Dante went to bed but made a point to stay awake. He knew Katara was masquerading as the Painted Lady, she was a horrible liar, but she'd never admit it unless he actually caught her in the act. He'd let her do her spirit thing and help the village one last time, but he'd make a point to keep an eye on her. He was concerned she might go after the factory, she was just worried enough about these people to do it. Either way, he'd catch her in the act tonight.

Not long after they had all went to bed, he heard Katara get up. He opened his eyes just a bit and watched as she slid some gathered grass and moss under her bedroll to make it seem like she was still there. She began dressing herself up as the Painted Lady, and she headed out. Once she was out of sight, he got up as well and called forth Rebellion. He probably wouldn't need it, but knowing how emotional she got about these sorts of things, you never knew.

As he passed Appa he noticed Momo chattering and Aang was just waking up.

"What's the matter buddy?"

The young avatar looked up and saw Dante running past him, and then saw the Painted Lady in the distance.

"It's her!"

He got up and tied on his headband before running after them.

"Dante, wait up!" he called out.

That was when Katara knew she was caught and began running instead. Dante was cursing under his breath, actually debating whether he should keep running after Katara, or go back and beat the crap out of Aang for destroying his element of surprise.

In the end, he kept running, now that Katara knew he was after her, she'd try and hide, and then he'd never find her. Aang easily caught up to him with some airbending enhanced running, and now they were rushing towards the river side by side.

"When we're done here, you and I are going to have a talk about subtlety and stealth!" he growled.

"What are you talking about; I just wanted to talk to the Painted Lady. I'm the great bridge between the two worlds; I do this sort of thing all the time!"

Dante groaned. "You idiot, that's not the Painted Lady, that's Katara dressed up like the Painted Lady! Now bend us some ice to walk on, we're about to hit the water and Katara's still ahead of us!"

He nodded and created one ice platform after another, and the two jumped from between them to keep up with Katara who was creating a sheet of mist while gliding across the water. They ended up running through the village, Katara on the lower walkway, and Aang and Dante atop the roofs of houses.

"Hey!" called out Aang.

Not a moment later, he slammed into pole for not looking where he was going, and Dante slid to a stop to grab his arm and drag him along so not to lose ground between them and Katara…or water is it were.

Katara meanwhile headed up a hill at the other end of the river and hid behind a large rock. She panted heavily for a few moments before settling down. The second she turned around, thinking she was safe, Aang and Dante suddenly appeared upside down, handing from atop the rock.

"Boo," grunted Dante.

"Uh, um…well hello travelers. I wish I could talk but I'm very busy," she said in a much airier voice than normal.

Dante grabbed her hat and threw it off her head, revealing her painted but still recognizable face.

"Quit talking like that, it's annoying."

They both dropped down from the rock and stood upright.

"Katara, why are you pretending to be the Painted Lady?" asked Aang.

Katara looked down in disappointment. "I was just trying to help the village, but since they all thought I was the painted lady, I guess I just sort of became her."

"Wait, so you've been sneaking out at night? Is Appa even sick!?"

"He might be sick of all the purple berries I've been feeding him, but other than that he's fine."

"I can't believe you lied to everyone so you could help these people," Aang said in disbelief.

Dante looked at him with a confused look. "Wait, why are you surprised? I've only been traveling with you guys for about a month now and I'm not even surprised she was one doing this. Was I the only one who thought this whole situation was blaringly obvious!?"

Katara shrugged. "Apparently, personally I thought Sokka would be the one getting suspicious, but he didn't seem to connect the dots either."

"Well either way," said Aang, "I actually think this is great, Katara's like a secret hero!"

"If you want to help, there's one last thing I have to do."

"Oh crap, I bet I know where this is going," groaned Dante.

* * *

"Yep, I knew it."

They had snuck up to the front of the metal factory and were planning to infiltrate it and destroy it from within.

"I know you already knew I was the painted lady when you said we should destroy the factory, and I'm sure you didn't mean it, but you were right. Getting rid of this factory is the only way of helping these people permanently," said Katara.

"Yeah, I said it because I didn't think you'd actually do it. This is gonna attract a lot of attention, attention we really don't need."

"I know that, but nobody will know it was us, and besides, remember that little boy the first day we go here? Do you really want him growing up the same way you did?"

Dante was silent for a minute before freeing Rebellion from his back. "Let's get this party started."

All three of them rushed in through the main entrance and into the oven-like building. When they arrived inside, Katara used some water and cut the chains holding up buckets of molten metal. Meanwhile Aang poured more of the metal all over the work level. Dante charged up a Drive attack and fired in into a cluster of pipes, slicing over a dozen in half that sent steam spewing everywhere.

Aang used earthbending and burst even more pipes on the other end of the room. Dante sliced apart the last of the molten metal containers, and Katara moved to the second level and finished the factory off by calling forward a torrent of water through the windows and began flooding the entire building.

Explosion rocked the structure, and the support network that helped everything up began to crumble. They knew now was probably the time to hightail it out, and they ran for it back out the way they came in. With their work done, the sewage that poured out from the drains cease to come out, and it was only a matter of time now, before the water cleared up.

* * *

Unbeknown to anyone, the explosion did more than just aggravate the Fire Army stationed there. It also awoke something deep underneath the factory, and now that it had finally stirred, it had one goal: get free.

It smelled plenty of food above, and it was hungry.

2000 years of hibernation had finally come to an end, and it could use a snack.

* * *

It was daybreak now, and the three of them were walking back to camp. Aang was still excited from last nights adventure, and was reenacting their deeds when Dante tapped his head, silencing him.

"You don't wanna wake up Sokka, we'll never hear the end of it if he finds out about this," he hissed.

They turned the corner to camp and who did they find awake but Sokka and Toph.

"Uh…hi Sokka, we were just on a morning walk."

Sokka had his hands on his hips and from the look on his face; he wasn't buying any of it.

"Oh really, a morning walk?" he said in an accusing tone while he emptied out Katara's bedroll, which was still filled with the grass and moss.

Katara and Aang closed their eyes in shame, and Dante hung his head, knowing there was a stupid lecture coming.

"I know you've been sneaking out at night, I know you're the Painted Lady, and I know you've been lying about Appa and feeding him purpalizing tongue berries!"

Toph stuck out her tongue, having eaten some as well. Her tongue was also purple. Sokka folded his arms in disappointment.

"Katara, what you did threw our whole mission into jeopardy! We're leaving right now!"

Katara hung her head and walked quietly back into camp. Dante and Aang passed him as well and he stopped them.

"And how long have you two known about this!?"

Aang threw up his hands in innocence. "Hey, I just learned about it this morning."

"I figured it out when she started, it wasn't that hard."

Sokka was about to argue, but didn't bother. He just grumbled and went to packing his things. A few minutes passed, and as they were getting ready to go, they heard a buzzing sound coming from the river. They all peered over the cliffside leading down into the water, and saw boats zooming towards the village.

"What's going on?" asked Toph.

"Fire Nation soldiers are heading for the village," replied Aang.

Sokka turned to Katara. "What did you do!?"

"I kind of destroyed their factory."

"You what!?"

She got angry back. "Don't look at me, it was Dante's idea!"

"I didn't think she'd do it! Besides, she sweat talked me into helping by using small children and my own troubled past against me; she's manipulative!"

Now it was Sokka's turn to bury his face into his palm. "You're the practical one Dante, you're telling me_ you_ didn't even think this through!? The army is going to blame the villagers; they're headed there right now to get revenge!"

"What were we supposed to do!?" defended Katara.

"Leave, do nothing!"

"No," she shouted, "I will never turn my back on people who need me!"

Sokka backed off immediately, and Katara stood up. "I'm going down to the village, and I'm going to do whatever I can."

Dante stood up to. "This is as much my mess as it is hers now, I'm goin' to."

They were already going down the hill when they heard Sokka call out to them.

"Wait, I'm going to."

"I thought you didn't want to help," said Katara.

"You need me, and I'll never turn my back on you."

Katara smiled. "Aw, Sokka you really do have a heart."

The brother and sister embraced while Dante, Aang, and Toph stood on the sidelines. Aang was actually crying and rubbed the tears away from his eyes.

"He really does have a heart doesn't he."

At that moment, both Dante and Toph had the same thought, and elbowed Aang, knocking him backwards.

"So how do we go about doing our whole rescue routine this time?" asked Toph.

"We just let Katara do her Painted Lady act," said Dante, "She plays the part of the river spirit on last time and scares of the soldiers. Problem solved."

With that, the group got ready for the Painted Lady's grand entrance.

* * *

Everyone had their place and the plan was set. Katara was obviously going to play the part of Painted Lady as she had been and she'd use her mist to make an ominous enterace, and to also cover Aang as he snuck under the dock to help were her "spirit magic". Toph and Appa would be creating strange noises to creep out the soldiers, while Sokka and Dante would play instruments they had picked up along the way to create some atmosphere.

Sokka was playing woodwinds while Dante got a hold of a Pipa. They both played to a slow beat to increase the "sense of mystery", as Sokka put it.

Dante couldn't really see what was going on past the mist, but as he was playing his instrument he heard quite a few yelp and screams. Hell, he even heard an explosion somwhere along the way. He could visualize what was happening beyond the misty vail and if it was half as entertaining as what he conjured up in his head, then he wished he could be there.

After a while, things quieted down and they all took it as their que to quit. Dante and Sokka loaded their things onto a small rowboat, and the two of them a long with Toph hopped onto the boat and rowed over to the village docks.

As they came to a stop at the docks and climbed onto the wooden platform, they watched as Katara floated back to the dock and the whole village started cheering for her.

"Thank you," said Dock, making his way out of the crowd, "me and my brothers owe you both a lot!"

At first he seemed overjoyed, but then a look of realization hit his face. "Hey, wait a minute, I know you. You're not the Painted Lady, you're that colonial girl! You've been tricking us; you're a waterbender!"

"She's a waterbender!" shouted someone in the crowd.

"How dare you act like our Painted Lady!" yelled another.

Dante ground his teeth and stepped forward. "Shut it all of you!"

His voice boomed through the village and everyone ceased their verbal assaults.

"Sure, maybe she's a waterbender, so what, you're missin' the point here; she saved you! That factory is toast and you can work on rebuildin' your village, plus the army's gone! Now either thank her, or shut your traps!"

"He's right, helping you was all her idea! If it wasn't for her, that factory would still be destorying your river and your village, and the army would still be taking all your food and medicine! You should be on your knees thanking her!" shouted Sokka.

Dante felt a hand on his shoulder. "Dante, Sokka...it's okay, that's enough."

"Look," said Katara, "I shouldn't have acted like something I wasn't and I shouldn't have tricked you, but…I felt like I had to do something. It doesn't matter if the Painted Lady is real or not, because your problems are real, and this river is real. A very wise person once told me: 'you can't always wait around for people to help you, sometimes you've gotta buck up and do things for yourself for a change'."

Dock looked down and nodded. "She's right, but what should we do?"

All of a sudden Dante saw Toph worm her way into the crowd.

"Maybe we can clean the river!" she said in a deepened voice.

Dock pumped his fist in agreement. "Yeah, we can clean the river!"

That earned a cheer from the crowd, and they all dispersed.

"Thank you," said Dock, "You know, you're not so bad for a waterbender."

"You wouldn't mind keepin' that a secret by the way, would ya?" asked Dante.

"No problem, keeping my mouth shut is a personal specialty. My brother Shu on the other hand, well he's a blabbermouth."

Sokka groaned and smacked his forehead.

"So Dock, are you going to help us clean?"

He shook his head. "No ma'am, I'm gonna get my other brother Bushi. He loves cleaning rivers!"

Dock reached up and whipped of his head, and underneath it was another hat, this one made of straw.

"There, I'm Bushi; let's get some river cleaning done!"

"Aha! I knew it; I knew you were the same guy! You're the shop owner and the boat guy!" concluded Aang.

"Oh, you must be talking about my brothers Dock and Shu."

"No, I just saw you! You switched hats and called yourself a different name!"

He gave Aang a funny look for a moment. "Oh, you know who does that, my brother Dock. He's crazy."

It looked like Aang was about to blow a gasket when Dante put a hand on his shoulder.

"Just give it up kid, you'll never win."

* * *

A few hours later and everyone was helping with the river cleaning. Katara, Aang, and Toph were water and earthbending the muck and water away from each other, while Dante and Sokka were aboard a ship on the opposite side of the village from where the docks were, using nets to grab it all. It was a slow process and it was getting kind of hot out, but with three master benders helping, Dante could already see the change in the water color.

It was actually more liquid than gunk now, and Dante dipped his hand in. It was then that he made an odd discovery.

"Hey Sokka, come here for a sec."

The water tribe warrior set down the stick he was using to gather up muck and came over.

"What is it?"

"Put your hand in the water."

He gave Dante a funny look.

"Just do it."

He sighed but stuck his hand in the water anyway. "Alright, what am I supposed to be feeling exactly?"

"Well what are you feeling' exactly?"

"I'm feeling cold, but murky water that we should be cleaning right now," he said, taking his hand out of the water and grabbing the pole again.

"Exactly my point, the water is cold, and I can feel it gettin' colder. It's almost summer; the water shouldn't be this cool."

Sokka sighed again and looked over at him. "Look, maybe it's a Fire Nation thing, I don't know, but it's not like it's the end of the world."

Sokka went back to work, but Dante wasn't so sure. There was no reason the water should be the cold, it felt like late fall, almost winter cold kind of water. Sokka was probably right; maybe he was just making mountains out of molehills. He reached back into the boat and grabbed his net.

When he turned back to the water, he was about to throw it out, when noticed something else, this even more peculiar. There was a small white speck on the water near their boat, and it was growing. In a matter of seconds, it was the size of a ball, and Dante reached out to touch it. It was freezing cold, and smooth: ice.

"Uh…Sokka?"

"What now Dante?"

"There's ice startin' for form in the water."

Sokka turned around, but as he did so the ice started to spread more rapidly and hit their boat, almost knocking him over. There were now other patches of ice all over the place, engulfing the entire river and river. Katara, Toph, and Aang were starting to notice it to.

"Are you guys going this!?" yelled Sokka.

"No, we don't know what's going on either!" shouted Aang.

Dante watch the ice spread, and in a matter of minutes had completely covered the entire river. The boats were all stuck in place and all tools were rendered useless. Dante called for Rebellion and it flew through the air into his hand from the campsite. He thrust it into the ice. He was surprised that it wasn't just the surface that was frozen; it was the entire river all the way down; every last molecule of water was frozen solid.

Dante stood up and pulled Rebellion out of the ice. He was about to try and get out of the boat when the ground suddenly shook violently. He gripped the side of the boat to keep from falling over. The shaking stopped and started again and again, each time becoming more violent. There were cracks forming in the ice, all coming from just a bit away from the village and extending outwards.

Then, suddenly, they stopped. Everyone looked to each other in confusion, nobody had any idea what was going on.

"Is it over?" asked Sokka.

As if to answer his question, the ice out where the cracks were forming suddenly exploded outward in a frenzy of frozen debris and ice chunks. As the crystallized dust settled, they saw a huge gaping hole reaching down into the ice, but nothing else. People began leaving their boats to investigate, as was Dante and Sokka. They were forced to walk slowly because of the ice, but after a few almost trips, they were able to make it close enough to take a look.

As they stood there, they heard a low gurgling noise.

Sokka leaned forward. "Is that…growling?"

Dante took a few steps forward and looked in closer. He was six flowing orbs, each floating in the darkness in pairs. Two were green, two were yellow, and the last two were red. Along with the growling, he put two and two together and turned to everyone.

"Get everyone back!"

Something burst out of the hole as he yelled, jumped right over him, and landed in front of the villagers. It tried to go after the villagers, but Katara and Aang were able to quickly rise up a thick wall of ice to block its attack. Dante jumped up onto the back of whatever it was that just came out of the ice, then jumped again, landing on the top of the wall of ice.

He was able to get a goo look at what he was dealing with now. It was a giant three headed dog, covered from head to paw in ice. Each of its head's had different colored eyes, and one of the heads themselves was easily the size of his body.

"Guys, get the villagers outta here, I'll handle ugly!"

They nodded and everyone tried to get back to the village as fast as possible as Aang blew his bison whistle. Dante turned back to what he assumed was a demon, and jumped over a swipe of its paw, landing further to the left on the ice wall.

"**Be gone pest!"**the dog demon roared.

Dante scoffed and flipped Rebellion in his hand. "Wow, I've never met a talkin' mutt before."

"**You dare mock me, you who are weak and powerless! I am the might Cerberus!"**

"Hey look, you've probably been cooped up under there for a while, how about I take you for a walk? Come on puppy!"

The demon roared in anger and breathed out a stream of ice crystals from his center head. Dante jumped over it and onto the same head that was firing the crystals before leaping again behind Cerberus all together. It roared even louder and whipped around, baring its teeth.

"Easy Fido, don't get all worked up, the party's just startin'."

"**That insolent mouth of yours must be SILENCED!"**

He lifted his left paw and smashed it down onto the ice, sending giant ice spikes jutting up from the ground. Dante wasn't expecting an attack from below, and the ice was too slippery for him to dodge. A spike came up right in front of him and he felt it pierce through his chest, splattering blood all over the frozen water.

He grunted as he stuck Rebellion in the ice spike, freeing both his hands to pull himself free. As he slowly freed himself, he felt his body regenerate around the wound. Katara flew down to his level with Appa, all the villagers away from the village.

"Dante, are you alright!?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but I can't move very well on this ice. I've got a plan though, I need you to waterbend me some ice-skates."

After Dante completely freed himself from the ice spire, he dropped onto Appa's saddle. Katara took some of the ice around them and changed it into water, then crafted them into crude skates over his boots and solidified them again.

"Right, that should do it; now, just hang back and watch the master."

He dropped down onto the ice and began skating towards Cerberus. He had learned how to skate at an early age; his home was in the far northern reaches of the Earth Kingdom, and it got really cold up there during winter, so his mother taught both him and Vergil how to skate when they were kids. He had never been more thankful for actually paying attention to her lessons.

He had picked up speed by the time he was in range of the demon dog, and it fired a solid chuck of ice at him this time. He easily strafed to the side and the ice missed him by a mile. He fired a Drive attack in retaliation and shattered the ice around its front right paw. Once he was in range, he swung Rebellion and sliced open the side of Cerberus's leg, and was rewarded with a roar of pain.

Dante skated out from the underside of the beast, and jumped, skating up the remains of the ice wall Katara had made to protect the villagers. When he hit the edge, he grabbed Cerberus's tail and swung to the side and fired another Drive attack, shattering the ice armor covering its side. He hit the demons side with his skates, digging his bladed boots into his newly vulnerable flesh. After he inflicted enough pain for his taste, he jumped backwards. He was still holding onto Cerberus's tail and he swung the way he came, riding the ice wall again and then hitting the flat ice. He skated a distance away to give him some maneuvering room, then skidded to a stop, kicking up chips of ice, and faced Cerberus.

The dog demon roared and stood up on his hind legs.

"Oh shit!"

Dante began skating away, having a good idea of what was coming. Cerberus slammed both his front legs down and a huge wave of ice spikes followed him as he skated at high speeds across the frozen river. He looked back; the spikes were still following him. When he faced forward again, he nearly had a heart attack. He was heading straight for the very steep cliff-side of the plateau that sat in the middle of the river. He had no time to change course, but luckily someone was there to help.

Katara bent the ice from the air aboard Appa and gave him a vertical ramp. He flew up and into the air, doing a airborne back-flip. He twisted in the air so he was upright in the air and he flew straight for Cerberus. Dante lifted up Rebellion and thrust downward as he pieced through Cerberus's left head, slicing right through its skull and stabbing its brain.

The weight of the impact whipped its head downward as it went limp, and Dante had to use all his strength to free his sword again. Once he had Rebellion free again, he leaped backwards into the air. As he was flying back through the air, the remaining two heads reared back and spewed more of its ice breath at him. He tried to Air Hike away, but it didn't give him much distance and he could slowly feel himself starting to freeze.

Luckily, he still had one last card up his sleeve. He roared and called forth a huge surge of power, activating all his devil blood. He invoked the same transformation he had gone through when Vergil stabbed him and the ice that was forming around him shattered instantly. Unfortunately his skates were also destroyed, but it didn't really matter. In his demonic state, he could use the excess energy leaking out of his body to create a gliding cushion between his feet and the ice, essentially creating skates out of his own aura.

As soon as he hit the ground, he pushed off with his aura cushioned feet and he was flying down the ice. Cerberus didn't even move to stop him, probably because he couldn't follow his movements accurately. Dante leaped up when he was right under the dog demon's heads, few right between it's two remaining heads, and delivered a slice to the center heads neck along the way up, spraying blood everywhere. His sword was now enhanced by his demonic aura as well, and was able to easily pierce through Cerberus's armor. He landed on his back, and stabbed him with Rebellion as he began gliding again, ripping his broadsword through the entire length of Cerberus's back.

He jumped off Cerberus's back, and glided towards the rocky cliff side of the plateau that sat in the middle of the river. Dante jumped up and began running up the cliff until the reached the top, then pushed up into a back-flip, not unlike what he did when Katara created the ramp to save him from colliding with the cliffside. As he fell downwards towards the ground and Cerberus, he began spinning. He descended on the three headed dog like a human power saw, and when his blade met the dog demon's right head, it cut through like a got knife through butter.

Dante leaped back and used his aura to halt his sliding, and stood up straight. Cerberus was missing one head, his second was impaled through, and his last was losing blood fast, plus his internal organs had taken a heavy hit thanks to him dragging Rebellion all the way through his back. The dog demon stumbled and fell, no longer having the strength to stand. Dante knew the fight was over and disengaged his transformation, reverting back to his normal self.

He walked slowly to Cerberus, trying to to trip and ruin his awesome victory. He stood in front of him and the looked each other in the eyes.

**"You...are not human...are you," **He gurgled out.

"Not entirely no. You ready to give up yet puppy?"

Cerberus groaned out what he could only assume was a sigh. **"My body is failing, and you have proven you worth. Take my soul and go forth, you have my blessings."**

With that, Cerberus's body dissipated and a small blue glowing orb took its place. It slowly floated its way to Dante, and he grabbed it. As soon as it touched his skin, it solidified. He took a look at his new weapon; they were a set of three pronged nunchaku.

He smirked. "Too easy."

"Dante!"

He turned around as saw Appa landed behind him and everyone as getting out and trying their best not to slip as they made their way to him.

"Dante, are you alright?" asked Aang.

Dante scoffed. "Please, it'll take a lot more than one three headed dog demon and a ice spire through the chest to kill me. Did you get all the villagers out in time?"

"Take a look for yourself," said Katara with a smile. She pointed up to the top of the far side of the river where they had evacuated the villagers. Everyone was waving and cheering, and he could see the kids dancing around.

"Looks like Dante's stealing your spotlight Katara," teased Toph.

She shrugged. "There's room on the pedestal for two."

"Well, I guess it's safe now, so we can get everyone back to the village. I've gotta do a little somethin' first, I suggest you guys get into the air for this."

They nodded and climbed back onto Appa to get the villagers, Dante meanwhile headed for the village. He inched his way across the ice until he found his way onto the previously floating wooden platforms. Once he was safely off the ice, he pulled out Cerberus. Bunching the three prongs together, he tapped them against the ice.

Cracks began to form in the ice again, and slowly it began to splinter apart. As the ice began to disintegrate, it also began to melt, and slowly the ice was replaced by the river water. In a matter of minutes the river was back to normal, and actually seemed cleaner than before.

Once he was done with that, he hurried over to the center of the village where Appa was finishing up returning all the villagers. When he came into view, the villagers broke into fresh cheers and as he passed people they waved and he even got occasional pat on the back. He waved back as he climbed back onto Appa.

"Check it out," he said holding up Cerberus, "I'm an unofficial waterbender!"

* * *

After exchanging some final goodbyes and plenty of 'thank you's', the group returned to their campsite. The day passed quickly and night fell faster than any of them would have liked. Katara wasn't tired yet and decided to watch the moon on the lower shore of the river. She turned her head when she heard footsteps, and saw Dante walking down to the shore as well. He stood next to her and stared up at the moon as well.

"Weird day, huh?" he said.

"I'll say."

Katara bent down and put her hands in the now cleared up river for a drink when the water started to ripple. She looked up at what Dante was already staring at. A figure in all white and a very wide hat with a painted face. She looked from Katara to Dante and smiled.

_"Thank you."_

After that, she glided back and faded away into nothing.

Things were silent for a moment before Dante sighed.

"That's it, I'm goin' to bed."

**

* * *

Woooooo! Long chapter again!** **It took me a little while because the geography surrounding the village was a little confusing. I wasn't sure just how wide the river was and stuff like that so I had to go back and pause the episode at certain points to get my bearings, so forgive me if it isn't 100 percent acurate. Kind of hard to work with just one or two panels of the entire river to go off of. Still, I got it done, and got Cerberus in there to. How you like me now!?**

**Tell me what you thought.**


	8. Chapter 8: Dante's Master

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 8

**Dante's Master**

Hey guys, wow it's been a while. Sorry I've been gone so long, but I've been so busy since my last update, and it took a while for me to get back into the swing of things. I had a bunch of Bible school volunteer stuff, and then there were family reunions and a few birthdays, plus my cousins late graduation party. Just a lot of stuff to go to; writing never even entered my mind.

I'm back though, and in case you couldn't tell, this is the Sokka's Master episode. This one's gonna be kinda cool, because we're going a little deeper into Dante's past than before. A few flashbacks, if that makes it a bit more exciting. He's also going to be a little more serious than normal in this chapter, and that also ties in with his past. You'll see why a little ways in.

* * *

It had been a few days since the swamp town fiasco and since Dante had acquired his new weapon. They had made good time since leaving and decided to stop a little early that night. They were sprawled out on the ground, staring up at the sky when as luck would have it, a meteorite shower rained overhead. They all laid back and watched the streaks of light brighten the sky, and then disappear just as quickly.

"Wow, this is amazing to watch," said Katara in awe.

"Kinda makes you realize how insignificant we all are," muttered Sokka.

Toph shrugged. "Eh, you seen nothing once, you've seen it a thousand times."

Just then, there was a flash in the sky. Dante sat up first and squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look. The flash turned into a streak of light that came closer and closer at an alarming rate.

"Oh crap," he growled.

"You've never not seen anything like this!" said Sokka.

The meteorite flew straight over their heads and crashed into the ground with a bright explosion. They all watched it in a mixture of wonder and worry, and immediately clamored onto Appa and flew to the crash site.

Down below, a strong fire raged across the grassy plains, and it grew larger every second. The blaze lit up the night and the smoke rose up into the air, blocking all view of the other side.

"The fire's going to destroy that town!" called out Katara.

"Not if we can stop it!"

Appa landed quickly and everyone slid off onto the ground. Dante free Cerberus from his belt and spun it around a few times.

"Katara, I'm gonna need you to get ready to waterbend alright!" he yelled.

She nodded.

"Toph and I'll go make a trench to keep the fire from spreading!" said Aang.

"What should I do?" asked Sokka.

Aang hesitated for a moment. "Keep an eye on Momo!"

Sokka had a deject look on his face, but in a situation like this, Dante really didn't have time to worry about it. He rushed forward towards the fire, and swung Cerberus down to the ground. Three pillars of Ice jutted up from the ground around him. He'd had time to fiddle with Cerberus a little over the few days he'd had it, and found he could use demonic magic to summon ice. He still wasn't very good at it, and it took a lot out of him. He estimated he could only do it about four or five times before being completely exhausted.

"Katara, now!"

A second later, he watched as the pillars melted into ice, and Katara splashed it over the flames. Toph was busy flattening out the fire with giant slabs of dirt. Dante spun Cerberus around a few more times and repeated the action again. The ice melted into water for again, and this time Aang got a hold of the water, bending it around to pour it on the flames.

"Sokka, get clear!" he shouted as he thrust the glob of water forward.

He sighed and grabbed Momo as he stood. "Right, get clear, got it."

Sokka walked laxly away, and was caught in the stream of water that Aang shot forth to put out the last of the flames. The final result was a slightly scorched crater, and a snowy after-effect.

Aang wiped his hands clean with a look of victory on his face. "Good work everybody."

Sokka wormed his way out of a mound of snow while Momo played around on a sheet of ice that also remained from the watery escapade. Dante sighed and put his hands on his hips, looking out at the distant town.

"Well, civilization seems pretty close by, might as well rent some rooms at an inn or somethin'; beats sleapin' on the ground."

"Maybe for you," commented Toph.

"Okay, well for all us normal people it beats sleepin' on the ground."

"Says the half-demon," she shot

"…touché Twerp," he grunted.

"Are you two done, or are we going to be here all night?" called Katara. Dante looked over to the left where her voice came from, and everyone else was loaded onto Appa already. He shrugged, and ran over to the six legged beast, and hopped onto the saddle in one jump.

With the last of the passengers secured, Appa began his ascent into the air and towards the town.

* * *

After putting out the flames from the meteorite, the whole group settled into a campsite just outside the town. They couldn't quite find an inn with any open rooms, so they just settled for a location still within walking distance of the town. Despite their outdoor sleeping arrangements again, they awoke rested and ready for the day the next morning. They all headed into town for some breakfast and found a small restaurant near the center of the village.

Aang came and sat down with Dante, Toph, and Katara at a table near the edge of the outdoor deck overlooking the rest of the village and the scenic view beyond.

"These people have no idea how close they came to being toasted last night," said Aang.

"Yeah, the worst thing about being in disguise is we don't get the hero worship anymore, I miss the love."

Dante scoffed. "I must have missed that part of your little round the world trip; seems to me you've got more enemies than friends."

Katara nodded. "Yeah, it has gotten a lot less glamorous than it used to be; the avatar card just doesn't seem to get us what it used to."

"Boohoo, poor heroes," grunted Sokka, who was sitting over at the very edge of the outdoor deck. He was slumped over and seemed pretty upset.

"What's your problem, you haven't even touched your smoked sea slug?" asked Katara.

He sighed and hung his head. "It's just, all you guys can do all this awesome stuff, like putting out forest fires, and flying around, and making other things fly around, and turning into weird demon things. I can't fly around okay; I can't do anything."

"That's not true, no one can read a map like you," said Katara.

"I can't read at all," added Toph.

"Yeah, and who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time."

"Uh…I thought I was the one who did the sarcastic comment thing," said Dante.

"Sokka was doing it first, so it's still his department," explained Aang.

Dante shrugged and decided not to argue.

"Look," said Sokka, deject, "I appreciate the effort, but the fact is each of you is so amazing, and so special, and I'm…not. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular."

Katara got up from her seat and walked over to her brother. She took a seat next to him and kept up her efforts to raise his spirits. "I'm sorry you're feeling so down, but I hope you know none of us see you that way."

He didn't respond, and for a while, there was a silence between all of them. A metaphorical light bulb popped above her head, and she perked up.

"I know what would make you feel better."

"You do?"

* * *

"Shopping!" shouted Sokka as he clapped his hands.

Katara's idea was to take Sokka to a weapons shop, and so far, it seemed to be working. Dante sure wasn't complaining, he enjoyed weapon stores as well. Not so much for the actual buying of weapons, no blade could compare to Rebellion, he just liked the feel of these kinds of stores. The atmosphere was always pleasant.

Sokka walked around and surveyed the racks of various weapons. He rubbed his chin and grinned.

"Maybe a little something to…reinvigorate my battling," he said to himself.

Something caught Sokka's eye and he grabbed the nearest weapon. He picked up a pair of nunchaku.

"Hey what about these; you just got something like this Dante, maybe we could learn to use them together!"

Sokka immediately began spinning the chained weapons around and around, almost seeming like he knew what he was doing until he ended up smacking himself upside his own head. Dante walked up and yanked the weapon from his head.

"Somehow…I'm thinkin' no."

As Sokka returned to his weapons search, Dante joined Katara as she inspected some gloves. Aang caught both their attention when he called them over. They both saw him wearing a heavy set of battle armor.

"Jeez, ya look like somethin' I'd normally be tryin' to kill," said Dante, scratching the back of his head.

"Pretty slick huh?"

They both walked up to the young avatar as he showed off his armor.

"Now all I need to complete the look is a Wind Sword."

"What's a Wind Sword?" asked Katara.

"It's a sword hilt that has a blade made out of wind. It was originally a demonic weapon, but I can see how an airbender would be able to imitate the weapon pretty easily," explained Dante.

"Yeah…nice."

Aang suddenly lost his balance and fell over in his armor, landing flat on his back. Dante chuckled and leaned over his helmet. "Well as badass as that all sounds kid, you should probably stick with what ya got, this doesn't really seem your speed.

Meanwhile, Sokka was fooling around with more and more weapons, each time finding someway to screw it up. He went through about five or six different weapons before he finally set his eyes on the grand prize. An elegant sword displayed on the far wall.

He rushed over to it to inspect it further. It had a green scabbard with a golden dragon running down its length, as well as a gold guard and a bronze, copper-ish hilt. He ran his hand up and down the scabbard and admired the sword.

"That's what Sokka's talking about."

"You have a good eye."

Sokka backed off from the sword and looked to see the shot owner.

"That's an original from the legendary sword master Piandao. The greatest sword master and sword maker in Fire Nation history; he lives in the big castle up the road from here."

"That's it! That's what you needed all along Sokka!" shouted Aang.

"A sword?"

He shook his head. "No, not a sword, a master; we've all had masters to help us get better, you should see if you can study with Piandao."

"That's a great idea," agreed Katara, "I could never have gotten to where I am without master Pakku. Everyone needs a teacher."

"I learned from badgermoles. They don't talk, but they're still good teachers."

"What about you Dante, who taught you how to use a sword?" asked Katara.

He shrugged. "Just a traveling swordsman; I met him when I was twelve, he took me back to his place, and then he showed me the basics and gave me a sword to use until I was strong enough to use Rebellion."

Sokka unsheathed Piandao's blade and looked at it. "It would be nice to be a master swordsman, I'll talk to him."

* * *

Later that day, Sokka went to meet with Piandao. Dante had insisted he come along, though he refused to give a reason as to why. It seemed a little odd, but regardless, the white haired swordsman came along. They walked up the road to a large white and red castle surrounded by walls.

Sokka used the left knocker to bang on the front gates. He waited for a few seconds, and then banged again. After another few seconds, he took both in hanged and began banging wildly until a butler swung the door open. Sokka immediately straightened up.

"Can I help you," he said in a dull voice.

"I've come to train with the master."

"You should know that in the last ten years the master has only trained one student. He's turned everyone else away; what did you bring him to prove your worth?"

Sokka began to panic a little. "Well…uh."

The water tribe warrior began to dig around his person looking for something, or anything. Dante sighed from behind and grabbed the edge of his bandanna that covered his hair and lifted it up slightly revealing a small amount of his bangs, then cleared his throat. The butler looked up at him and for a moment his eyes widened before he calmed himself again.

"Right, let's get this over with."

With that, Sokka and Dante walked through the front gates and were led into the castle. Dante could tell the butler was glancing back at him periodically, and it didn't surprise him.

After a few minutes, they finally came to the main hall where master Piandao sat on the other end, dipping his brush into fresh ink, writing on a page of paper, most likely practicing calligraphy. As they entered, the butler passed them and walked up to Piandao, and whispered something into his ear. He nodded slightly, but remained silent.

Dante nudged Sokka and nodded his head towards the elder man, and Sokka got what he was trying to say.

"Master, my name is Sokka, and I wish to be instructed in the way of the sword."

"Sokka, that's an unusual name," he commented.

Sokka began to panic again. "Oh, uh, really; because, where I come from –the fire nation colonies- it's a pretty normal name, for Fire Nation colonials."

"Let me guess," he sighed, "You've come hundreds of miles from your small village where you're the best swordsman in town, and you think you deserve to learn from the master."

"Well…actually I've been all over the world," he corrected.

"Yep, here we go."

"And I know one thing for sure," he said, getting on his knees, "I have a lot to learn."

He turned his head slightly. "You're not doing a very good job of selling yourself."

"I know. Your butler told me that when I met you I would have to prove my worth, but the truth is…I'm not sure I am worthy."

Piandao smiled to himself. "Hm…well, let's find out together how worthy you are."

He planted his sword down in front of Sokka. "I will train you, before that though; I have something I need to settle. Go out into the training grounds and wait for me there."

Sokka looked back at Dante for a split second, then back at Piandao before nodding and following the butler out of the room and into the training grounds. Once he was gone, Piandao made a b-line for Dante. Dante stepped forward as well, meeting Piandao half-way. The two stared eye to eye, the intensity growing.

"You have a lot of nerve," said Piandao.

Dante smirked and leaned his had to the side, appearing very cocky. Then, out of no where, Piandao bonked Dante on the head with his sheathed sword.

"You have a lot of nerve walking in on your old master with that kind of slouch. Didn't I teach you any posture at all? You're the same teenager you were three years ago," he said with a smirk.

"Yeah, and you're the same dull old geezer_ you_ were three years ago," he joked back.

Piandao wasted no time hitting Dante on the head again.

"Ow, quit doin' that!"

"Don't disrespect your master," he said calmly.

Piandao stepped back and examined Dante. "You've grown quite a bit since I saw you last. You're taller then me, that's new. Tell me now, have you finally gotten yourself a girlfriend or not? I remember back when you were still training with me, you'd clam up like a lost puppy every time a girl would come within a mile of you."

"Well…there was one girl I might have liked a little, but still single unfortunately, but give me some credit, I'm not nearly as shy."

The old sword master laughed. "I can tell, you seem to have gotten quite a deal cockier than before, which is saying something. Now tell me, since when did you decided you needed a traveling companion, that water tribe boy seemed to know you a bit."

Dante shrugged. "Well, he's part of the avatar's posse, so it's a package deal."

Piandao raised his eyebrows. "The avatar eh, I heard he died."

"He's good a playing possum."

"Hm…so, is this boy here any good?"

"He has his moments, but for the most part, not really. He's pretty smart and he can think on his feet, but skilled he is not."

"I see, have you taught him anything? After all, you're a sword master yourself now."

Dante shook his head. "No, I'm not much for teaching. He's pretty much a blank slate. The thing is, we're on the clock here, not gonna say why, but we're in a hurry, so could you just give him the crash course. Just give him the most important lessons, nothing fancy."

"You know better than anyone Dante, that swordsmanship is not something that can be rushed."

"I know that, but he needs to at least learn something, and we're moving out in the next day or two regardless, so I'm asking you, just get as much done as you can and I'll see if I can't help fill in the gaps after we leave. I remember lot of those exercises from back in the day."

"I thought you said you weren't much for teaching."

"Well, I don't really have much of a choice. Just give him what you can and get him a sword, alright?"

"Very well, but only because I have faith in your ability to further instruct him; if there's one thing your good at, it's swordsmanship."

Dante chuckled. "If you don't mind, I wouldn't mind sticking around and watching this. If your training regiment is anything like it was when I was here, this should be entertaining."

His old master nodded and they both headed outside. Dante stood atop the staircase, watching as Piandao walked down the stairs to the training ground, and began to give Sokka the same lecture he'd given him when he started training.

"The first thing you must learn is that the weapon is an extension of yourself. You must think of it as another part of your own body," he explained.

"Like a second head!"

"Well…more like a extra long really sharp arm."

Piandao continued to display his prowess with the blade as he went on with his lecture.

"The sword is a simple tool, but in the hands of a master, it becomes the most versatile of weapons. Just as the imagination is limitless, so to are the possibilities of the sword."

The look of awe on Sokka's face was nostalgic. Dante remembered the same feeling the water tribe warrior was feeling now.

Some time after that, they returned to inside where Sokka was put to work on a calligraphy set. Dante remembered this particular episode of training as well.

* * *

"The warrior practices a variety of arts to keep his mind sharp and fluid. The first you will learn is calligraphy. Write you name."

Piandao handed Sokka brush, and Dante could tell he was confused.

"Writing my name will make me a better swordsman?"

"When you write your name, you stamp the paper with you identity, you must learn to use a sword to stamp your identity on a battlefield."

Sokka dipped the brush into the ink and looked eager at first, until he was issued a warning.

"Remember, you cannot take back a stroke of the brush, or a stroke of the sword."

Sokka suddenly looked very worried, and his hand began to shake. He scratched his head in thought and inadvertently splotched his chin with ink.

"You're getting ink on your face."

"I am…I am; so this is about me putting my identity on the page right?"

Piandao nodded.

Dante watched in a mixture of amusement and expectancy as Sokka covered his face in ink and wiped it all over the paper. It sort of reminded Dante of how this stage of training had gone for him.

* * *

"_This is lame," groaned a twelve year old Dante._

"_Lame or not, it will help you to become a great swordsman."_

_Dante scoffed and shook his head. "Fancy writin' isn't gonna do anythin' on a battlefield, I need to know how to bust some heads. You know; sword techniques and stuff like that!"_

_Piandao knelt down next to next to Dante and put a hand on his shoulder. "Dante, sword techniques and fighting abilities are not all that define a swordsman. Being a great swordsman is being able to carry a sword without having to unsheathe it. Yes, there will inevitably be times when your blade must be drawn, but it will be your duty to know when and where that time should be. The defense of truth and honor, not only for yourself but for others, should be your only reason for ever drawing your sword."_

_He then stood up and began pacing in front of Dante's small table. "Calligraphy is an ancient art that should be respected and revered. It will hone your mind and help to establish balance. Without a well balanced mind, you will become rash and lax, much as you are now. These traits could easily lead to your death."_

_Dante chuckled and laid on his back, still blowing off Piandao's lessons. "Yeah whatever, but I'm different remember. I can heal those wounds; I can't be killed like regular people can. Why have a balanced mind when you're un-killable?"_

"_You will learn sooner or later Dante, that no one is un-killable. Even the spirits themselves can be defeated by mere mortals with enough ingenuity. I tell you this now so you are aware when you come face to face with an opponent more skilled than yourself. You are talented, you can become a truly great swordsman, I know it, but this aura of invincibility you seem to think you have will be your downfall. Strength is not everything; creativity and resourcefulness, imagination and ingenuity, these are the swordsman's greatest weapons, and these are the things that come with a balanced mind."_

"_Uh-huh," said Dante boredly while picking his ear._

_Piandao sighed. "Let me tell you a story Dante. Years ago when I was young, I challenged a Lieutenant in the Fire Nation army to a sparring duel, while I myself was still a wandering swordsman."_

_Dante chuckled again. "Pretty bad move there master, he's a bender, he had the advantage over you."_

_Piandao nodded. "Indeed he did. His firebending was impressive, and his power was nothing to be laughed at, but I had something more potent than firebending."_

"_Yeah, and what was that?" asked Dante._

_The sword master tapped his forehead with his index finger. "My mind; I was able to manipulate my opponent into submission by outsmarting him. I used the pillars around the arena for cover against his fire, and was able to goad him into the confined space where I could easily ambush him. Once I had gained the advantage by circling behind him and breaking his footing, he had no way of fighting back. I defeated him without ever even attacking him with my blade."_

_Dante rubbed his chin. "So…what you're sayin' is…I can beat people without even usin' my sword? Huh…well that does sound kinda cool."_

"_Yes it is Dante. Plus, there is one more reason for you to want to learn Calligraphy."_

"_What other reason?" asked Dante, now quite interested._

"_Girls are very impressed by boys who know the art of Calligraphy. Get good enough at it, and it may be worth flaunting a bit."_

_That as all the incentive Dante needed. He dipped his brush into the ink and the lesson began._

* * *

Dante resisted the urge to laugh. He'd almost forgotten what a brat he'd been back then. How that old man put up with all his crap he'd never know. His lessons has been invaluable though, and Piandao was the closest thing he had to a father anymore.

He had a feeling this sense of nostalgia would be following him for some time as he followed Sokka to his next exercise.

What a look back this was.

* * *

Dante remembered this exercise to. This was the exercise he'd probably complained about the least, just because the meaning of it was straight-forward enough for him to understand the first time around. The landscape painting was tough, but it was a useful skill, and Dante was glad he'd learned it.

"Landscape painting teaches the warrior to keep the lay of the land in his mind."

He suddenly stopped a blindfolded Sokka in front of Dante's favorite spot in the entire area. A huge waterfall just outside the village leading down into a huge chasm with a deep river flowing at the bottom; this was where Dante had often come to think and meditate during his training as well.

"In battle, you only have an instant to take everything in," he said as he whipped Sokka's blindfold off, revealing the landscape. Sokka had a look of wonder on his face, until Piandao turned him around and sat him down in front of a blank piece of paper.

"Now paint it," he ordered.

Sokka tried to sneak a peek back at the waterfall, but Piandao caught him and turned his head back around again.

"And no peeking."

With that option out, Sokka began painting what he could remember. Dante would occasionally glance back to see how he was doing, but mostly he just stood still and looked out at his favorite spot in the Fire Nation. After a few minutes, they heard Sokka announce his paintings completion.

"I'm finished!"

He presented what could only be described as a small child's art project. Piandao raised an eyebrow.

"You added a rainbow."

"Is that okay?"

Dante snickered from a distance away. The sad part was he and Sokka had done just about the same on the test.

* * *

"_So what're we doing today master?" asked Dante._

"_Today you will be doing landscape painting."_

_The young apprentice sighed. "Should I even ask why?"_

"_Because landscape painting will increase you ability to memorize your surroundings in an instant; you must know where you are fighting, if you wish to fight effectively. If you don't know every inch of your environment, then your opponent could catch you by surprise, and quite possibly end the battle with a decisive blow."_

"_Huh, you know, that oddly makes sense to me."_

"_Good," he said as he took of Dante's blindfold. That was when Dante laid eyes on his favorite waterfall for the first time. It was a magnificent sight, and for a moment Dante forget he was supposed to be memorizing it. He took in what he could before Piandao turned him around._

"_Now paint it."_

_Dante picked up his brush and dipped it in the ink. He tried to sneak a peek back at the falls, but Piandao grabbed his head and turned it back around._

"_And no peeking."_

_Dante huffed but continued on and painted the landscape as best he could. When he was at least satisfied that he hadn't completely failed, he handed it to Piandao. What was presented was a crude waterfall with some pointy triangles that were supposed to be mountains, and blotches on the top that represented messy clouds._

_Piandao sighed. "We'll try again tomorrow."_

* * *

Yet another exercise Dante could clearly remember from his training days. The rock gardening was a straight forward but annoying task. Dante was especially interested to see what Sokka would come up with.

"Rock Gardening teaches the warrior to manipulate his surroundings and use them to his advantage," explained Piandao.

Sokka rubbed his chin as he thought. "Hm…manipulate it to my advantage…OH!"

He immediately ran down to the rock garden and began pushing around the largest rock he could find. He pushed it over under a tree, then went for some nearby moss and brought it over as well. Dante and Piandao both stood side my side, practically scratching their heads.

"Do you know what he's doing?"

"He doesn't even know what he's doin' half the time," replied Dante.

A few more rocks later, his intentions finally became clear; he made a recliner. Dante couldn't help but laugh, especially when the butler came out and found his garden mauled by Sokka's exploits.

"Hey, would you mind grabbing a cold drink for me?" called Sokka.

"I'll take a slice of lemon in mine please."

"Got any booze?"

Piandao quickly bonked Dante on the head with his sheathed sword again.

"Ow!"

"He'll have the same as me with lemon also."

Dante grumbled as the butler walked away. "Damn it, I hate lemons."

"I know, I remember."

He groaned again, but looked back at Sokka's recliner and still found it amusing. He sort of wished he'd thought of that one, but then again, he liked his old idea to.

* * *

"_Rock gardening?"_

_Dante and Piandao were walking to the mansions garden below the training grounds. He was being started on yet another new training exercise. Of course, this one had the oddest name ever. _

"_Yes Dante, rock gardening. Why, is that a problem?"_

"_I guess not, no, it's just the name seems like the biggest oxymoron ever. Why the hell would you garden rocks?"_

_They took the last step down and entered the garden. "This exercise will teach you to manipulate your surroundings. Make the rocks serve you."_

"_Uh…okay."_

"_I'll return in a half an hour to check on your progress."_

_He stood in the center of the garden, thinking of what he could do. He had to make the rocks serve him, so how could he best do that? He stood for what seemed like hours when an epiphany finally hit him. _

"_That'll work."_

_He grabbed the largest rock he could find, and rolled it up over the larger rocks that were lodged deep in the ground, setting it up against the wall. He ran back and grabbed another rock, still quite large, but smaller than the first. He brought it back to the first rock and stacked it on top of it. He continued this twice more until he had a make-shift staircase._

"_Heh, I love loopholes."_

_With that, he climbed his home made stairs, and hopped the wall of the mansion, running into town to grab some food._

* * *

With their day coming to a close, Sokka and Piandao sat in the training grounds across from each other, while Dante chose to sit on the steps.

"You've had a good first day of training."

Sokka looked up. "I have? But I thought I messed up every single thing we worked on."

"You messed things up in a very special way. Besides, you were much less ornery and difficult than my last student," he said, making it a point to glance at Dante near the end.

"You are ready for a real sword."

"Are you giving me one of yours!?" asked Sokka excitedly.

"No."

His expression immediately dropped.

"Your sword must be an extension of yourself, so tomorrow you will make your own sword."

Both Sokka and Dante stayed the night at the mansion. For Sokka it was like a special resort, but for Dante it was like coming home again. He'd spent three years of his life living and training in this mansion, and he could still remember all the nooks and crannies that most people would miss. Piandao even gave him his old room, just the way he'd left it. Training clothes scattered across the floor, bed unmade, and a trashed dresser. It was literally untouched since he left.

* * *

It was morning again, and Dante was sitting in a chair watching as Sokka selected metals to be used for his would be sword. Dante hadn't really ever needed to go through this particular step of training considering Rebellion was the strongest sword in the world, but Piandao made him do it anyway. He said it would come in handy someday. He hadn't had use it yet, but he figured it never hurt to have it just incase.

"Choosing the correct material is the most important step when crafting a sword. You must trust your steel with your life, choose carefully."

Sokka began examining all the different metals, weighing them in his hands and…biting them, for some reason or another. He set the metal down and rubbed his chin when he had a look of discovery on his face.

"Master, would it okay if I left and brought back a special material for my sword?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Dante and Sokka left the mansion and headed back to their campsite outside the village. He'd asked Sokka just what they were looking for, but he refused to give up anything just yet. He had to admit, he was stumped. They climbed up the hill leading to the rest of the group.

"Hey guys!"

"What's up?"

They both greeted casually, but were immediately assaulted with a barrage of hugs.

"We missed you guys so much!" said Katara.

"Say something funny!"

They all had a look of joyous anticipation.

"Funny how?" asked Sokka.

Aang and Katara burst out laughing, making Dante wonder just how long they'd been gone. Everyone seemed completely nuts.

"What's their deal?" asked Sokka.

"Yeah, we leave for one day and it seems like everyone's gone insane."

Toph shrugged. "I don't know. They missed you or something, I didn't care."

"Thanks, that warms my heart. Anyway, I need some help."

* * *

Moving back up the hill was an arduous task. It's not everyday you have to lug up a huge hunk of meteorite to mansion on a hill. Making a sword out of the ore from a meteorite was actually probably one of the craziest but best idea's he'd ever heard.

"I gotta admit Sokka…provided this works…this could probably make…one of the best swords ever," he grunted between heaves.

"Oh…well thank you."

"Just try not…to screw it up."

"Whatever," he groaned.

Once they'd dragged it up to the gates of the mansion, Sokka banged on the doors randomly again until Piandao came out.

"Who is this?"

"Oh, these are my other friends, just other good Fire Nation folks."

He glanced at Dante, he slightly nodded his head. His old master gave no response but bowed to them none the less.

"Do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?"

Piandao approached the rock and moved his palm over it. "We'll make a sword unlike any other in the world."

* * *

The rest of the day was spent waiting for Sokka's sword to be completed. For the most part everyone, even Dante, stayed out of his way. Making a sword was a personal experience, and only Sokka and Piandao should be present. That didn't stop them from occasionally peeking in to see how he was doing, but they didn't speak to him, lest they break his concentration.

It was late in the evening, and while Sokka and Piandao were still hard at work on Sokka's sword, the rest of the group were waiting out in the training grounds. Aang, Toph, and Katara all sat on the steps while Dante practiced with Cerberus. He was still trying to get the ice pillar thing down.

"How do you think he's doing?" asked Aang.

"Don't worry about him, he's fine," said Dante.

He twirled Cerberus around a few more times and tried the ice pillar move again. It was successful, creating three pillars, but it still tired him far more than he liked.

"So Dante, is that really the soul of the demon you fought back at that river town?" asked Katara

He wiped his forehead of sweat and nodded. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"It's just…I guess I don't understand why a demons soul would become a weapon."

"It's simple; when a demon dies, its soul transforms into a physical object. Most of the time it's just common stuff like devil stars that can heal, or white orbs that can restore magic, but if a demon's powerful enough, it transforms into somethin' called a Devil Arm. That's what Cerberus is, a Devil Arm. My pops had a whole bunch of books on this sorta stuff, and they were the first things I ever learn how to read."

"So does that mean there are more of those things out there?" asked Toph.

He shrugged. "Wouldn't surprise me, they're probably the really old ones, from back before the realm of darkness got seal away. We're talkin' pre-avatar stuff here."

"Wow, that is old," muttered Katara.

"Anyway, we shouldn't be worryin' about that, let's just focus on Sokka gettin' his sword done shall we. Spirits know that's gonna take forever to finish."

* * *

Sokka had to work all through the night to finally finish his blade, and even into the morning. When the metal had finally cooled, and the hilt had been coated and wrapped, the blade the finally presentable, and Piandao called everyone into the main chamber. Sokka was sitting in front of Piandao, while everyone else stood and watched.

"Sokka, when you arrived you were so unsure, you even seemed down on yourself. But I saw something in you right away, something I haven't seen since my last pupil, I saw a heart as strong as a Lion-Turtle and twice as big. As we trained it wasn't your skills that impressed me," he said as he took Sokka's sword in his hand.

"No, it certainly wasn't your skill. You showed something beyond that."

Piandao then drew the blade, revealing an onyx colored blade, with a golden guard and a red hilt. It sort of looked like a miniature version of Rebellion.

"Creativity, versatility, intelligence; these are the traits that define a great swordsman, and these are the traits that define you."

With that he presented Sokka with his sword. He humbly accepted it and held it tight.

"You told me you didn't know if you were worthy, but I believe you are more worthy than any man I have ever trained."

Dante had to contain himself after that one. Sure, Sokka did pretty well, but he could have saved that for when he _wasn't_ in the room!

"I'm sorry master, you're wrong, I am not worthy. I'm not who you think I am, I'm not from the Fire Nation, I'm from the Southern Water Tribe," said Sokka sadly.

Aang, Katara, and Toph had looks of panic on their faces, but Dante was smiling. Somehow he knew Sokka would pull through. This was one of the last tests Piandao set up; it was how he made sure that his student wouldn't abuse his or her skills. If they took the sword without question, then he'd probably take the sword back, but if they showed humility and honesty and were able to admit their faults, then their training was complete. The fact that Sokka was admitting to his lie and recognizing it as a mistake guaranteed his passing.

Seeing how Dante acted, you'd think he would have failed this test right off the bat, but even he had a sense of humility…somewhere. Piandao was just one of the few people who could really bring it out.

_

* * *

"Today your training with me is complete Dante. I met you as a lonesome and angry young boy, and you've grown into an admirable man. When we began our training I admit I was worried about your progression; you were reckless and cocky, and you might still retain those traits, I can see the level of maturity you've achieved underneath."_

_A fifteen year old Dante sat kneeling in front of Piandao in the main chamber. Piandao took Rebellion in his hands, amazing Dante that he could lift it. He rested the tip of the blade on the ground and held its hilt._

_"You amazed me with your determination and your willingness to defend others. You've been through more than anyone your age deserves, but it has made you a better man. You displayed the qualities of a great swordsman; courage, resourcefulness, and a stout and steadfast resolve."_

_Piandao picked up Rebellion again and lowered it to Dante for him to grasp. "I know that soon the day will come when you surpass me, and I will forever be honored to have been your teacher."_

_Dante reached for Rebellions hilt slowly, hesitantly. At the last moment, he pulled his hand back and looked up._

_"Master…you said that I've matured, that I'm an admirable man, but…I just don't see it. I mean, for the last three years, all I've ever done is blow off your lessons and ignored your advice. I've gotten better at fighting, sure, but I don't feel any more mature. How can you praise me when I've never done anything to earn it?"_

_Piandao just smiled and set down Rebellion before putting a hand on Dante's head. Dante still looked up in confusion._

_"Dante, you just proved how mature you are. Just now, you looked at yourself, and you admitted to your faults. You admitted that you weren't perfect, and that you had room to mature and grow as a person, just as all people do. The fact that you openly and honestly questioned your past actions and recognized them as mistakes proves that you have the maturity and responsibility necessary to carry a sword."_

_Once again, Piandao presented Rebellion to him. Dante slowly grasped the hilt, and took the blade into his hands._

_"That is the reason I will always be proud to have been your teacher. I've done great things in my lifetime, but I know that you'll do even greater."_

_Dante smiled and looked down at Rebellion, never suspecting that his master's words were in no way far from the truth._

* * *

Dante now watched intently to see how things went with Sokka. He lifted his sword and gave it back to Piandao.

"I lied so that I could learn swordsmanship from you…I'm sorry."

Piandao's expression soured and he turned away. "I'm sorry to."

Suddenly, he whipped back around and slashed at Sokka with his sword. He rolled back and dodged the attack, rolling to his feet. He locked blades and the gang moved to help him until Dante threw his arm out to stop them.

"Dante, what are you doing!?" shouted Katara.

"Don't; this is his thing, don't interfere."

"But…"

"He's right, this is my fight…alone," said Sokka.

As if communicating telepathically, both Sokka and Piandao headed down to the training arena, taking opposite sets of stairs and never letting their gaze leave each other. A minute later, they were standing across from each other at opposite ends of the arena, while Dante and the gang stood atop the balcony above the arena watching.

"How can you let this go on Dante, we could stop this!"

Dante shook his head. "No, a sword duel is an incredibly personal thing. If we interfered now, Sokka's pride would be in worse shape than before he got here. We need to let him do this alone."

"But he could get seriously hurt!" protested Katara.

"No he won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Just trust me, he won't get seriously hurt. He might get a little bruised up, get a few cuts, but he's not gonna die."

They turned back to the battle already in progress. Their blade battle had taken them to a bridge where Sokka was hopping around to avoid attacks. They got progressively further and further from sight, until it got to the point where they couldn't be seen anymore.

This was Piandao's last test. Everything he taught had to be put into practice here. Sokka would have to pull out all the stops to make it through. He had to keep from being forced into submission for at least two minutes. Long story short, Dante passed this part by the skin of his teeth. Dante had a heavier blade, and it slowed him down, evening it out between him and Piandao when they fought.

Speaking of Sokka, he came running back to the arena, ducking under Piandao's blade as he tried to ambush him. He slid on his knees and managed to stumble back onto his feet. He plunged the tip of his blade into the grounds and swiped back as he tripped backwards, spraying dirt into the air and blinding his opponent.

"Very resourceful!"

With Piandao's sight temporarily gone, Sokka tip-toed around, trying not to be heard. That plan was shot to hell when he stepped on a stray twig. With his location revealed, Piandao approached his quickly and had no trouble finally disarming him. With his weapon gone and his balance thrown off, he stumbled to the ground defenseless. Piandao put his blade to Sokka's face, signaling his defeat.

With the fight over, Aang, Katara, and Toph wasted no time jumping right down after Sokka to defend him from what they thought was a life or death situation. Dante simply sighed and remained at the top of the balcony while all the others got ready to fight.

Piandao returned to a neutral stance as he heard them approaching. "Excellent work Sokka."

Sokka looked perplexed as Piandao motioned for his sheath. His butler threw it to him and in one fluid motion, positioned his blade to that it flew right on with no resistance whatsoever. With that, he stood casually.

"I think I'm a little old to be fighting the avatar."

They slowly slipped out of their stances in surprise.

"How did you know?"

"Oh, I've been around a while, you pick things up. Of course I knew from the beginning that Sokka was Water Tribe," he said as he cleaned his face of dirt with a towel given to him by his butler.

"You might want to think of a better Fire Nation cover name. Try Lee, there's a million Lee's."

"But…why would you agree to train someone from the Water Tribe?" asked Katara.

"For two reasons, the first being that the way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation; knowledge of the arts belongs to us all."

"What's the other reason?" asked Sokka.

"Well, you're personal friends with my last student, and I tend to take his recommendations highly."

Sokka scratched his head in confusion. "I've met a student of yours before?"

He looked to the other and they all shrugged as well.

"Oh come on, I'm right up here geniuses!" called Dante.

They all turned and saw Dante hop down to the arena with them and walked up and joined them. Everyone except Piandao had a look of shock on their faces.

"Dante, you're Piandao's last student!?" shouted Aang.

"Yeah, is it that much of a shock?"

"You told us you learned from a traveling swordsman!" pointed out Sokka.

"I did, Piandao was traveling when he met me, and he was a swordsman; traveling swordsman."

Piandao moved to Sokka's sword and removed it from the ground, and then handed it to him.

"Sokka, you must continue your training. Dante has agreed to oversee your progress in my absence, and between his guidance, and your own heart, if you remain on this path, I know that one day, you will become an even greater master than I am. Dante is the most capable of my past students, and among the greatest swordsmen in the world, even surpassing me in skill; there is no one better qualified to teach you while on your journey than him. You're in good hands, and I look forward to the day when I can see the magnificent sword master you will become."

Sokka and Piandao shared one last bow out of respect for one another, and then it was finally time for them to part ways.

* * *

As they left Piandao's mansion and headed down the hill, the butler called out to them. Turning around, the man stopped and caught his breath for a moment before handing Sokka a small pouch.

"The master wanted you to have this, as something to remember him by."

As he left, Sokka turned back around and untied it. A Pai Sho tile plopped into his palm. Dante's eyes actually widened in surprise, the old man actually gave him the tile.

"It's a Pai Sho tile," said Sokka.

"The White Lotus, huh," pointed out Aang.

"What does it mean?" asked Katara.

"I have no idea."

Dante drowned out the rest of the conversation as he reached into the rear pocket of his pants and pulled out an identical pouch. He emptied its contents into his palm, revealing the same White Lotus. He couldn't believe Sokka had actually gotten the tile. Out of all his students, Piandao had only given the White Lotus tile to himself and now Sokka.

He clutched the tile in his hand; Sokka had no idea that he had just become an honorary member of the Order of the White Lotus. Dante himself had only met a few members, and they were all pretty low ranking. The Grand Master was supposedly Fire Nation, but no one he'd ever met knew his name, and he doubted he'd ever met him anyway. This was his first time in the Fire Nation in three years.

He sighed as he put the tile back in the pouch, then the pouch back in his pocket. He turned around as the rest of the gang caught up with him. They were having an argument over the piece of meteorite that Sokka had given Toph. It didn't really matter, he was just glad to have caught up with his old master.

He wondered what surprises tomorrow would bring.

**

* * *

Okay, so I hope that was entertaining. I thought it would be kinda funny to have Dante be taught by this sort of strict swordmaster, and still seem sort of cocky, but also reveal just how mature he can really be.** **If there's one thing he takes seriously, it's the art of the sword, and this was the perfect chapter to touch on that. **

**Anyway, the next chapter is The Beach, and you know what that means. It means I get to totally make fun of Vergil, because he hasn't been around in a while, so next chapter will have a lot of him. **

**Vergil at the beach, what could go wrong?**

**Reviews are always welcome.  
**


	9. Chapter 9: Life's a Beach

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 9

**Life's a Beach**

First of all, let me apologize for being gone so long. I've hit some road bumps with all my writing. Mainly with writers block and general lack of motivation, but this story specifically because simply finding this episode was a chore. Seems Youtube decided to be bigger fucktards than they were before and took down all the episodes.

That aside, there's interesting and unknown waters ahead. This takes place in "The Beach" episode, and will for the most part focus on Vergil. I'm going to try and humanize him a bit this chapter, but you won't see it till the very end. The reason for this being is because I want him to be a more likable character than in the games. I mean, yes, people like him in the games. Hell, I like him more than I do Dante, he's my favorite character, but I think most people like him just because he's cool. (I'm not saying I don't like him because he's cool, I'm just saying there's more to it than that.) I want people to like him because he's not the completely heartless bastard most people think he is...even though that's another reason I like him.

Anyway, just read on and tell me how well I did.

* * *

In another area of the Fire Nation entirely, a lone boat sailed thought the water. At first glance, there was nothing special about the boat, and even up on closer inspection, it was nothing out of the ordinary. What were extraordinary however, were its passengers.

"I'm so excited to spend the weekend on Ember Island! It's gonna be great to just lie on the beach and do nothing!" said Ty Lee cheerily.

"Doing nothing's a waste of time, we're being sent away on a forced vacation. I feel like a child," growled Zuko.

"Perhaps it's because you constantly act like one," said Vergil, absorbed in a scroll. The same scroll in fact, that he received from Ozai in the library. Zuko glared at him, but he didn't seem to notice in the slightest.

"Zuko lighten up," said Azula, "So dad wants to meet with his advisers alone, without anyone else around, don't take it personally."

"Doesn't your family have a house on Ember Island?" asked Ty Lee.

"We used to come here every summer when we were kids."

"That must have been fun."

"That was a long time ago," muttered Zuko, looking out over the edge of the boat at the sea.

* * *

Once they reached Ember Island, dozens of beach homes came into view. The boat came to a stop at the docks, and Lo and Li awaited their arrival.

"Welcome to Ember Island kids," they said in unison.

They were all a bit disappointed when they saw their beach home, save for Vergil who was still absorbed in his scroll. They walked up the trail and entered the house, which was a cavalcade of pinks, purples, and reds.

"It smells like old lady in here," whispered Zuko to Mai.

"Gee, I wonder why?"

Ty Lee and the others were off admiring a picture, meanwhile Vergil cleared off the central table, wiping off objects and letting them clatter to the floor as he laid out his scroll.

As far as he could tell, the scroll was written in ancient demonic runes. Vergil had experience reading a more modern variant of demon writings, thanks to his father's small library at the place that had once been his home, but this was a much older dialect. Some of the symbol's he thought meant one thing made no sense on the scroll, making deciphering the writing a frustrating task.

He had translated a good chunk of it so far, but he still had work ahead of him. This 'vacation' was an inconvenience, but luckily he could still get his work done. He heard a cluster of footsteps come back into the room after everyone had gone into the bedrooms.

"Vergil, we're going to the beach, you wanna come?" asked Ty Lee.

"I have important work to do," he said, still not looking up from the scroll.

"Oh come on!" she whined.

It took all Vergil's willpower not to decapitate her. She continued to whine, both to his irritation, and those around her. He gripped the table, splintering the wood to keep grasp of his self control.

"If I play along to your childish whims, will you leave me alone for the rest of this ordeal?"

She nodded enthusiastically. He simply sighed and removed Yamato from his belt, and threw off his blue overcoat and brown gloves, revealing his sleeveless black undershirt. After shedding his excess layers of clothing he stood at the ready.

"Let's get this over with."

* * *

Elsewhere in the Fire Nation, Dante and the rest of the gang took a similar break from their travels, though the younger of Sparda twins was enjoying his small vacation far more than his slightly elder brother.

They all found a small pond in what looked like a very old crater. It seemed like a great spot to camp and take a rest, and everyone decided to go swimming. Aang was floating around lazily, Katara was washing out her hair, Toph was just soaking seeing as she didn't know how to swim, and Sokka was fishing for reasons unknown. Dante was currently underwater, seeing if he could reach the bottom. After succeeding, he swam back up to the surface and took in a deep breath, then decided to drift around similar to Aang.

"Aang, I know swimming is fun and all, but do you really think you should be exposing yourself like that? Cover up!"

"What, I'm wearing trunks?" he said, floating around in the water.

"I think she mean's the arrows buddy," corrected Dante.

"There are walls all around us, it's completely safe," argued Katara.

Of course, as soon as she said that, Aang decided to prove her wrong and jump down a tunneled river. Dante saw it all happen and sighed; knowing him, they were about to get boned hard somewhere along the line.

* * *

Back on Ember Island, Vergil had been successfully dragged to the beach. He felt frustrated and annoyed that his work had been interrupted, but if it meant peace and quiet for the remaining duration of their trip, he could indulge their simple pleasure for a fraction of a day. They arrived on the beach and approached two young children working on a sand sculpture. Azula crushed it with her foot and drove the two of them away, kicking their toys after them.

The entire group split up and settled down in different spots. Zuko went off with Mai, and Ty Lee headed off along. Vergil simply stood nearby where Azula had laid her things about, and stared out at the ocean.

"Vergil, you do know you can sit down right?" she said, laying back in the sun.

"Hm," he grunted.

Azula sighed and sat up. "You're stuck here Vergil, you might as well enjoy it. Sit down and relax, you can work later."

"That scroll may be the key to completing my life's work, do not speak about things you couldn't hope to understand."

Azula scowled. "Don't overestimate yourself Vergil, who are you to tell me what I can and can't understand?"

"I have skills you could never match, abilities you could never duplicate, and knowledge of things well beyond your conception. I'm well within my rights to look down upon a little girl."

With that, he turned and walked away, done dealing with her. Azula on the other hand, had her jaw dropped. No one, _no one_, had ever spoken to her with that much defiance and confidence. She was infuriated, enraged, and embarrassed. How dare a simple swordsman, no matter how useful, ever talk to her like that, especially in public?

She immediately scrambled to her feet and marched after him. When she was close enough she used her nails and dug into his shoulder as she attempted to turn him around. He didn't even budge against her pull, but he turned around anyway to humor her.

"How dare you speak to me that way, did you forget who you were talking to!?"

"I remembered exactly who I was talking to, I just don't care. Titles mean nothing in this world; your status does not instantly grant you my respect. You may think I still need you and that you are key for some imaginary purpose, but in reality the only reason I didn't kill you after you had delivered me my brother was because it would be more convenient to leave you alive. You're continued existence is nothing short of a gift from me, one that –if I were to eventually regret- I wouldn't hesitate to take back. You would do well to keep that in mind next time you feel the urge to try and grab my shoulder."

It was dead silent between them after that. Azula soaked in what Vergil had said, and Vergil himself was merely awaiting a reaction. Azula knew Vergil well enough to know that he never beat around the bush when it came to threats. If he said it, he meant it, there was no middle ground.

Ultimately Azula simply walked away, and Vergil didn't press the matter. He was confident he had severely bruised her over inflated ego. Azula stomped across the beach, feeling the need to release some aggression. That was when her eyes fell upon a nearby volleyball game. What better way to calm her nerves than to crush a few neophytes.

"Hey beach bumps, we're playing next. Ty-Lee get over here now!"

The brown haired girl complied happily, walking on her hands to join her friends. Zuko threw off his over-shirt for better mobility, and the four huddled in the ball court. Vergil leaned against a rock that sat near the edge of the court, watching them play their little game. It amused him how easily Azula could be angered; he was sure that would come in handy later on.

Needless to say, the four of them won with little effort. The final scoring serve had left the net of the volleyball court on fire, and Azula had a look of utter triumph on her face.

"Yes, we defeated you for all time! You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation!"

Vergil, who was now just outside the arena, shook his head at her foolishness. "Settle down you imbeciles, it was only a game. If anything you've only proven how simple minded you all are."

The swordsman turned his head slightly when he heard footsteps in the sand behind him. Two boys, slightly younger than Vergil, both with brown hair, approached them.

"I'm havin' a party tonight, you should come by," said the taller one, addressing Ty-Lee.

"Sure, I love parties!"

"Your friend can come to."

Azula stepped forward, standing next to Vergil facing the pair of newcomers. "Uh, what about the rest of us?"

They both glanced at each other, trying to ignore her.

"You don't know who we are do you?"

"Don't you know who we are? We're Chan and Ran-jan."

Zuko began to stomp towards them before Azula stopped him.

"Fine though, you're invited. Just so you know though, some of the most important teenagers in the Fire Nation are gonna be there, so just try to act normal."

Azula smirked. "We'll do our best."

* * *

It was dusk now, and everyone arrived at Chan's house…even Vergil.

"I can't believe I'm actually wasting more of my time with this idiocy," grumbled Vergil.

"Oh quit it Vergil, one party isn't going to kill you," said Azula.

"No, but I just may _mutilate_ it."

Just then the door opened, revealing Chan. "Uh…you're a little early, no one's here yet."

"I remember you telling someone you'd be partying from dusk till dawn. It's dusk, so we're here."

"But that's just an expression."

"We are the perfect party guests, we arrive right on time because we are very punctual."

He shrugged, but moved aside and gestured for them to come inside.

"Alright, my dad's an admiral, he had no I'm throwing this party, so don't mess anything up," he warned them.

Vergil didn't bother with anymore of the unimportant details. He simply took a seat and got comfortable; if he didn't move or talk to anyone, this would go by quickly and he could get back to work. It wasn't long before guests began to arrive, and music began to play in the background. Eventually it didn't matte where he went, the entire house was loud. He was just waiting for an excuse to leave.

Throughout the entirely of the party so far, he witnessed a number of events. Ty-Lee using martial arts to escape a group of drooling boys, Azula laughing like more of a maniac than normal, and finally her disappearing; all the while he wished for somewhere that wasn't loud and annoying. His prayers were answered when he finally caught sight of a doorway that led to deck in the back of the house that he had previously missed.

He stood up and pushed his way through the crowd until he made it to the back. It was darker outside, and the voices and music faded in the open air. There was only one thing; he wasn't alone. Azula was leaning of the railing of the deck when she heard his footsteps and turned around.

"Vergil."

"It's much quieter out here. Unlike my brother, I don't like parties."

He walked past her and leaned his back against the railing a bit farther down. There was a silence outside, only the waves and the faded sound of the party music broke the quiet of the night. Vergil found himself fiddling with his mothers amulet that dangled around his neck. He looked down at the glowing gem and its gold chain. It had a slight illuminative look it thanks to the light from the moon hitting it at the right angle.

"Was it a gift?" asked Azula suddenly.

Vergil glanced up slightly. "Was what a gift?"

"That necklace, I've never seen you without it, and this isn't the first time you've just stood there staring at it."

He was silent for a moment, his eyes lingering on it for a second longer before replying. "It's a monument."

Azula rose to eyebrow in confusion. "A necklace is a monument, to what?"

"To all of my sins."

She was about to press the matter further, but suddenly the music and idol chatter stopped. It was faint, but they could clearly hear Zuko and Mai yelling. After a moment there was a slam of the door and the party resumed.

"Something tells me our welcome here is coming to a close. I suggest we go after him; your brother is…unstable, to say the least, and left to his own devices there's no telling what idiocy he'll get himself into."

* * *

Moving across the Fire Nation for a moment, Dante and the rest of the gang were fast asleep. The swordsman was sprawled out on the ground, his arms wrapped around Rebellion as he snored. Suddenly Toph shot up from her rest.

"Guys, you're all gonna think I'm crazy, but it feels like there's a metal man coming," she warned.

The rest of the group groaned as they slowly sat up. Suddenly a light shown down on Aang's eyes and he put up his had to shield his eyes. Dante looked up, gripping Rebellion, and stood even faster after catching a glimpse of the newcomer.

"Oh shit, not this guy," he groaned.

The man took in a deep breath and his eyes widened in concentration. Dante whipped his head around.

"Run!"

A compressed beam was launched from his forehead at the five of them. Dante spun Rebellion so he held it reversed in his hand, and the beam hit the flat side of the blade, the slight angle deflecting the beam off to the side, hitting the nearby rocks.

Toph meanwhile launched up several rocks up at him. They were easily blown away by a second blast. Katara tried next with a wave of water, but it to was blow away, creating a huge cloud of steam that block both their and their attackers view.

"Don't bother, that ain't gonna work! Just take cover!" shouted Dante.

* * *

Back at the beach Vergil stood on the shore of the water. Azula chose to round up her brother alone, which left him, Ty-lee, and Mai to sit on the beach until they returned. Speaking of which, he heard to sets of footsteps approaching. He turned his head slightly and saw the siblings approaching their little campsite.

"Hey," said Zuko, addressing Mai.

She shrugged off his comment. He sat down and attempted to put an arm around her, but again, she shrugged it off.

"Are you cold?"

She didn't answer but Ty-Lee did. "I'm freezing!"

He grinned. "I'll make a fire."

"There's plenty of stuff to burn up there," he said looking up at his former summer home.

* * *

Another explosion rocked the small hill the group took cover behind. The rock was slowly but surely being chipped away by the continuous attacks.

"This is crazy, how do we beat someone who can blow stuff up with his mind!?" shouted Sokka.

"We can't, you get on Appa; I'll hold him off!"

Aang stood up and tried to go out to fight, but Dante grabbed his arm. They all looked to him in confusion.

"Actually, we can beat him! I've met this dude before; he's surprisingly easy to beat if you know how! You guys get on Appa, this'll be over quick!"

They were hesitant, but Dante urged them on and they complied. While they were getting airborne, Dante slung Rebellion over his shoulder and ran up the hill. He grabbed a small rock slightly smaller than his palm as he ascended. Once he came to the top, he called out to him.

"Yo, what's up three eyes, remember me!?"

He was answered with a compressed beam being fired at him. Dante leaped forward and twisted into a spiral in the air, dodging the explosion. Once he was at the correct angle, he threw the rock at full strength. Dante knew he needed to recharge after every shot, and based on when he threw the rock relative to when his shot was fire, the rock would impact where he needed it to just a little under a second before he could fire again.

As he fell, Appa flew underneath him, and Dante grabbed the edge of his saddle. They leveled out and he threw himself into his seat. Once they were all safely in the air, he looked back to watch.

"What did you do?" asked Sokka.

"Wait for it…"

Suddenly a huge explosion flashed down where the man had been standing. Dante turned back to the group with a smirk.

"And that's how ya beat him; he never learns."

* * *

Zuko threw another picture into the campfire, this one an old family portrait. It took merely seconds for it to be consumed by the flames.

"What are you doing?" asked Ty-Lee.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"But…it's a painting of your family."

"You think I care!?"

"I think you do."

Zuko looked away, the scowl on his face as deep as ever. "You don't know me, so why don't you mind your own business!"

"I know you," she murmured, but not softly enough so Zuko couldn't hear it.

"No you don't, you're stuck in your own little Ty-lee world where everything's great all the time!"

"Zuko, leave her alone," said Mai, defending her friend.

"Oh look at me, I'm so pretty, I can walk on my hands, woo!" continued Zuko in a mocking tone while walking on his hands. He flipped over and landed on his back.

"Circus freak," he spat.

Azula laughed in amusement, but the comment had pressed a very sensitive button of Ty-Lee's.

"Yes, I'm a circus freak, go ahead and laugh all you want! You want to know why I joined the circus?"

"Here we go," Azula sighed.

"Do you have any idea what my home life was like? Growing up with six sisters who looked exactly like me? It was like I didn't even have my own name!"

She was now on her knees in front of the fire, sobbing.

"I joined the circus so I wouldn't have to spend the rest of my life as part of a matched set! At least I'm different now, circus freak is a compliment!"

"I guess that explains why you need ten boyfriends to," said Mai calmly.

She sat up on her knees, more angry than upset now.

"Excuse me, what?"

"Attention issues; you didn't get enough of it as a kid, so you're trying to make up for it now."

"Well whats your excuse Mai, you've been an only child for fifteen years, even with all that attention your aura is a dingy, pasty, gray…"

"I don't believe in auras," she said flatly.

"Yeah," said Zuko, standing up from the ground, "you don't believe in anything."

"Oh, well I'm sorry I can't be as high strung and crazy as the rest of you."

He began walking back to the campfire. "I'm sorry to, I wish you would be high strung and crazy sometimes instead of keeping everything bottled up inside. She just called your aura dingy, are you gonna take that?"

She simply laid back on the rock she was sitting on, dismissing his urges to react.

"What do you want from me? You want a teary confession of how hard my childhood was? Well it wasn't, I was a rich only child who got anything I wanted…as long as I behaved…and sat still…and didn't speak unless spoken to. My mother said I had to keep out of trouble, that we had my father's political career to think about."

"Well that's it then. You had a controlling mother who had a set of rules and every time you strayed from them you got shut down. That's why don't care about anything and why you can't express yourself."

Mai sat up suddenly and leaned forward, standing up as she spoke. "You want me to express myself, leave me alone!"

Zuko smiled and walked towards her. "I like it when you express yourself."

"Don't touch me; I'm still mad at you!"

He scowled again. "You know, my life hasn't been so easy either!"

"Whatever, that doesn't excuse the way you've been acting!"

"Calm down you guys," interrupted Ty-Lee, "this much negative energy is bad for your skin, you'll totally break out."

"Bad skin? Normal teenager worry about bad skin! My father decided to teach me a permanent lesson, on my face!"

Ty-lee looked down in shame. "Sorry Zuko, I…"

"For so long I thought that if my father accepted me, I'd be happy! I'm back home now, my dad talks to me, heh, he even think I'm a hero! Everything should be perfect right? I should be happy now, but I'm not, I'm angrier than ever and I don't know why!"

"There's a simple question you need to answer then: who are you angry at?" asked Azula.

"No one, I'm just…angry!"

"Yeah, who are you angry at Zuko?" asked Mai.

"Everyone, I don't know!"

"Is it dad?" asked Azula.

"No…no."

"Your uncle?" asked Ty-Lee.

"Me?" asked Azula again.

"No, no, no, no!"

"Then who are you angry at?"

"Answer the question Zuko!"

"Talk to us!"

"Answer the question!"

"Come on, answer it!"

He lifted both his fists and threw them down, causing the campfire to burst upward in a column of flames.

"I'm angry at myself!"

The flames slowly died down to nothing but smoldering embers. He took a few steps away, facing the ocean.

"Why?" asked Azula.

"Because I'm confused; because I'm not sure I know the difference between right and wrong anymore."

"You're pathetic," said Azula with a slight laugh.

Mai walked up beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know one thing I care about, I care about you."

She gave him a kiss before they both heard a single applause from behind them.

"Wonderful performances everyone," said Azula sarcastically.

"I guess you wouldn't understand would you Azula; because you're just so perfect."

"Well yes, I guess you're right. I don't have sob stories like all of you. I could sit here and complain about how our mom liked Zuko more than me, but I don't really care. My own mother…thought I was a monster. She was right of course, but it still hurt."

That was when they heard a sigh from the very tip of the shore of the beach. While caught up in their stories, they had completely forgotten that Vergil was still there, standing silent and unmoving as a statue looking out at the ocean. He turned his head slightly as they all looked at him.

"I left that party because I was hoping for peace and quiet. If I had known you would just keep yelling and carrying on, I would have simply left on my own."

Zuko scowled again, his rage returning again. "Well excuse us for voicing our feelings! It's not like you have any, you're nothing short of a machine!"

Vergil actually chuckled and turned around, looking Zuko in the eye with a smirk on his face.

"You're all pathetic, every one of you. I stood here silent listening to your stories, and I found that the most amusing part was that you actually believed your lives were difficult, that all these tales were horribly tragic events that no one could possibly understand," he said, openly mocking them.

"Not fitting in, having controlling parents, a simple scar; these are nothing. The only reason you think you've had hard lives is because you've never had to deal with the real world. Even in your exile Zuko, you still had an entire crew at your command to do your bidding."

"Your sheltered lives have created so many illusions you can't even imagine. All you are are a few sympathy grubbing neophytes begging for attention. Having your life completely ripped away from you, being spit upon by even the lowest of scum in the most backwater of villages, doing anything to survive, even mercilessly tearing a man to sheds with your own two hands at the tender age of nine; that is just a sample of my life."

He turned back to the ocean and folded his arms behind his back.

"I'm grateful for these events however, they taught me a valuable lesson; the most valuable lesson of all in fact. Might is everything, and without strength you cannot protect anything, let alone yourself. Living by this, I was able to do what was necessary to gain power, and not political power, not military power, but pure, raw, untamed power. It didn't matter who, or what, or why, if they impeded my progress, my quest for power, they were eliminated. Lives, even my own, have become meaningless; power is the only thing that matters, and if I'm to die, I will simply make the afterlife mine. Not even death will keep me from might."

No one move, no one breathed, only the waves kept everyone from the brink of the insanity of silence. After a moment, Ty-lee of all people mustered up the courage to speak.

"Is that…I mean, is that really what you believe. There isn't one person in the whole world who ever meant anything at all to you? Ever?"

Vergil stood silent, once again finding himself fiddling with his amulet. He looked down at it, suddenly remembering an odd memory. Bits and pieces of the day he got the amulet.

"_Happy birthday boys, I've got your presents!"_

"_Sweet, I want the gold one!"_

"_No I get the gold one, you get the silver one!"_

"_No fair, you always get to pick!"_

"_That's because I'm older than you."_

"_Settle down boys, now come inside, I have dinner ready."_

A strange sensation ran through his body. His face was beginning to warm, and he suddenly felt extremely heavy, like his limbs were weighting him down.

"_Where do you think dad went Dante?"_

"_I don't know; I wish he'd stayed though."_

"_Me to…"_

"_Don't worry, that's why I'm here Vergil! It doesn't matter what happens, you and me, we'll be best friends forever!" _

"_You think so?"_

"_We're brothers, and mom says brothers always love each other."_

"_You're such a momma's boy Dante."_

"_Am not, meanie!"_

For some reason he felt weak all of a sudden. Something touched his right cheek, something wet and it ran down to his chin and dripped onto the amulet. Was he…crying?

"_Good night boys."_

"_Good night mom."_

"_Night mom."_

"_I love you both…so much. I'll see you in the morning."_

She never did see them the next morning though. That was the night everything came crashing down; the night his mother died. Now he recognized this feeling; it was agony. Not physical agony, but agony. He gripped the amulet tighter and silently took in a deep breath, and calmed his nerves.

"No…no one at all."

* * *

It was nearing midnight now. Vergil was sitting out on the deck of their beach house, the moon shining down over the scroll. He finally had peace and quiet, but for some reason, he was unable to focus. He sighed and looked up at the moon.

His gaze left the moon and moved to the entrance to the deck when he heard footsteps against the wooden floor. Azula walked to the other side of the table he was sitting and sat down.

"You lied," she said suddenly.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb. Back at Chan's party you said that amulet was 'a monument to your sins'. Then, after you were done ranting on about our little story time, and Ty-Lee asked you if you really believed that, you started playing with that necklace again. That leads me to believe you were lying when you said you didn't care about anyone. I think there is someone, someone you simply can't bring yourself to kill."

He glanced at her for a moment before looking down at his scroll. "You're imagining things."

"Am I, or maybe I'm completely right. Could it possibly be your brother?"

Vergil was silent.

"I'm right aren't I? It wasn't just some freak accident he survived his battle with you was it? You let him live because you couldn't bear to kill him could you?"

He still remained silent.

"Well, unlike you, I'm not quite so afraid to kill your dear little brother," she said as she stood back up.

"You should keep that in mind the next time you feel the urge to threaten me."

With that, she left for bed. Vergil was left alone again, and he returned his gaze to the moon.

"_We're brothers, and mom says brothers always love each other."_

Vergil sighed again.

"You always were a momma's boy Dante."

**

* * *

Okay, so I hope Vergil seems a little...I don't know, deeper?** **We've just been going into Dante's past and thoughts so much that I thought Vergil could use some attention to. I admit, while I'm a big Vergil fan, I'm better with Dante, so I don't know how well I did here. I think it went alright, but then again, I'm not the one I have to impress.**

**Review away!  
**


	10. Chapter 10: Lost and Found Again

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 10

**Lost and Found Again  
**

Okay, so I've been wanting to do this chapter for a while now, so I wasted no time working on it. It's about...98 percent Dante. There are two long flashbacks here, so more past exploring. The theme of the episode that this chapter takes place in is friendship, but for Dante it's family, so it's still got a message, it's just been changed to fit the character.

Read on my friends.

* * *

Once again, the cloud camouflage returned as they flew across the waters of the Fire Nation. They were headed for the island formerly inhabited by the avatar before Aang, avatar Roku. Apparently Aang had a little spirit world episode and they needed to head there so he could talk to him. According to Sokka, this happened more than most people thought.

The clouds dissipated around them as they closed in on the island. Aang leaned forward as they descended downward.

"There it is, that's Roku's home!"

They flew down to the shore of the island and Appa set his six feet down on the ground. The five of them quickly filed off and set their feet on the hard surface. Katara looked down; the ground was unusually black and bumpy.

"But…there's nothing here."

"Y-yes there is," said Toph, "an entire village, hundreds of houses, all completely buried in ash."

Dante looked up at the now obviously dormant volcano that loomed over the island and whistled. "Man, that musta been one helluva bang."

It was sunset now, and Aang sat on the tip of a mound made of dried and hardened lava that overlooked the ocean. He was in a deep meditative state.

"So…what, we're just sittin' here while he glows it up?" asked Dante boredly.

"Pretty much," shrugged Toph.

"Huh, well I'm gonna take a look around the island. Something tells me this is gonna take a while; I'll be at the top of the volcano if ya need me."

With that, he sat up from the rock he was previously sitting on and began trekking up the scorched black landscape. There really wasn't much to see; everything worth looking at had been burned down and buried by the lava and ash. Luckily, most of the walk wasn't too hard because it wasn't overly steep going up. The last stretch however was extremely hard to get up, and Dante had to use Air Hikes in some places to avoid falling.

The effort was worth it though, he had made it to the top and he could enjoy the view at last. The sky was a mish-mash of oranges, and yellows, and even some purples. To combat some boredom, Dante fished into his rear pocket and pulled out the White Lotus tile piece Piandao had given him when he completed his training with him years ago. He began flipping it like a coin in the air and catching it.

Looking out at the sunset, he suddenly had some weird thoughts. He found himself dwelling on his childhood, back when he'd been…well, as normal as he'd ever been. The first thing he went to was back when has father had still been around. He'd been too young to remember most of it, but he did vaguely remember the day he left; he'd been five then.

Nothing specific, but he did roughly remember what he looked like. White hair like his own, a purple overcoat, he even remembered a monocle. Why he remembered something like that he hadn't the foggiest, but it stood out to him.

He remembered him saying goodbye to him and Vergil, but his voice was lost to him. He remembered him hugging his mother and kissing her goodbye, and then never seeing him again after he stepped out the door. Out of everything though, most of all Dante remembered his mother's sadness. From the minute he left, all through the night his mother had been sad ranging from depressed huffs and the occasional sob, to outright tears.

To this day he had no clue why he left, or why he never came back, though he guessed he was probably dead somewhere. To be honest, it didn't really matter; they'd gotten along fine for the next two years after that. They'd been fine until she died. That night was the first time in a long time that he had really truly wished his father were back home again. Sure, occasionally he had hoped he might return, but it was never something he dwelled on for too long. That night though, he pleaded with fate desperately for his father to come back to save them.

And he never did.

Unlike the day his father left his family though, he could clearly remember the night his mother had been killed.

_

* * *

Dante was shaken awake and his eyes fluttered as he regained consciousness and sat up in his bed. _

_"Dante, Dante wake up," he heard Vergil whisper._

_He rubbed his eyes and looked down at his twin brother, who was standing next to his bed in his blue pajamas._

_"What is it Vergil?"_

_"I heard something outside my window, come check it out with me."_

_"It's your window, you check it out."_

_"No, you come with me; I don't wanna look by myself."_

_Dante huffed as he threw off his blanket and hopped onto the wooden floor. They both walked over to the window on the other side of the room next to Vergil's bed. Staring into the dark they stood and listened and watched. After a minute of continued silence and inactivity, Dante got tired and walked away._

_"But…I know I heard something. You have to believe me Dante."_

_"Okay, let's go get mom, she'll know what to do."_

_Vergil nodded and Dante opened their bedroom door. They'd only been in bed for about a half an hour, so Eva was still awake, sitting in their living room drinking tea and flipping through a book, when her two sons timidly stepped out from the hallway. She sat up immediately and set down the book._

_"What's the matter boys; you should be in bed, you have school tomorrow."_

_Dante pointed at his brother. "Vergil thinks he heard something outside his window, but I didn't see anything."_

_"There's something there, I know it!"_

_Eva sighed, but with a mother's patience ushered them over to their wide couch. The two seven year old boys clawed their way onto the seat and sat on either side of their mother._

_"Well, I'm sure whatever you heard was just your imagination Vergil, but you and Dante can stay out here with me for a little while if you want." _

_"Thanks mom," said Dante, getting comfortable._

_For a while they just sat there in the quiet, the two young boys getting drowsy. _

_"Hey mom," asked Vergil._

_"What is it Vergil?"_

_"Where did dad go?"_

_Eva sighed and held her boys closer. "Well sweetie, even I don't know for sure. Your father had something incredibly important to do, and he had to leave."_

_"More important than us?" asked Dante._

_Eva shook her head. "No Dante, not more important than you or Vergil. Your dad didn't want to leave, he didn't want be away from you two, but if he didn't go then a lot of people, us included, wouldn't be safe. Your father loved you two, never doubt that."_

_Looking down at them, they still looked unsure and slightly confused. That's when an idea struck her. Her husband had wanted to wait to show them these, but she figured now would be the perfect time._

_"Boys, just sit there for a minute, I'll be right back. I want to show you something."_

_The twins watched as their mother walked into the hallway, and rummaged around in the hall closet. The two were enamored; the hall closet was always off limits for them, its contents had always held an aura of mystery and wonder. Whatever had their mom going to the hall closet must be important._

_Eventually she found what she was looking for and came back with two large bundles of cloth in each hand. The one in her right hand was extremely large, almost the size of her body, and the other was much more slender and shorter, more compact. _

_"The amulets I gave you earlier today were a present from your father to me, and ones that I gave to you. These though, are presents directly from him to you," she said, setting them down on the table in front of the couch, the wood creaking from the weight._

_"When you were born he would talk for hours about the day when you two were finally old enough to use these. He couldn't wait to teach you."_

_She slid the large one over to Dante and the small one to Vergil. "Here's yours Dante, and this is yours Vergil."_

_Vergil immediately pouted. "No fair, I wanted the big one."_

_"No way, this is mine! You always get the cool stuff!"_

_Eva intervened before another brotherly squabble could erupt. "Quiet now, both of you. Your father picked these out for you both a long time ago, just be happy with what you have."_

_Vergil sighed heavily and grabbed the cloth. "Fine," he huffed._

_Dante grabbed his bundle as well. It looked big and heavy, but it was surprisingly easy for him to lift._

(A/N: Just to be clear, Rebellion has an enchantment on it by Sparda that makes it lighter than normal to its wielder, which in this case would be Dante, hence him being able to lift it at such a young age. For everyone else it's incredibly heavy. The only reason Eva was able to lift is because…well you'll see in a second.)

_As the two were inspecting their presents, a heavy knock sounded from their front door. Eva got up from the couch. She walked up to the door and stopped, then turned around._

_"Boys, I think it's time you went back to your room. Don't come out until I tell you to, okay?"_

_"But why mom?" asked Dante._

_"Don't argue with me Dante, just go back to your room!" she snapped. He was about to disobey that order to and argue with her, but he was interrupted by a loud crash. A huge gray arm punched through their thin front door and wrapped its hand around Eva's head. With a strong heave, he yanked back and pulled her through the door and into the night._

_"Mom!" both twins shouted in unison._

_A second later, a mass with the same gray color skin as the arm flew back threw the last remnants of their front door and landed on its back, unmoving. It was relatively human shaped, but at least twice as big, very muscular, pointed ears, sharp fangs, and two jagged horns protruding from its forehead. Both twins guessed it was either unconscious or dead._

_They looked back to the front door when they heard footsteps creak against the wood. Relief washed over them when they saw their mother walk back into the house, though their front door and the walls around it were totaled. She inspected the monster's body as she cracked her knuckles._

_"There's probably more, boys come with me, we need to get into town!"_

_They nodded, to surprised and scared to argue anymore. As they scrambled off the couch, both their bundles in hand, another crash, this one louder than before, shook their home. Another monster crashed through the ceiling and landed behind Eva._

_It raised its claw and swiped down at her. She whipped around quickly and caught the claw in her left hand, and twisted -the cracking of bones audible. She delivered another quick blow to its forearm, snapping its arm completely in half and causing bone to jut out of its skin. With one last strong kick to its gut, the creature was launched out their destroyed front door. _

_"Come on!"_

_She took both their hands and they all three ran out of the house. The dirt road down to town was about a mile in a half long, and there was no telling how many other demons were out there. Dante and Vergil were having trouble keeping up with their mother's surprising speed and she was forced to slow down for their sake. _

_They'd been running for a little over two minutes when out of nowhere, another claw swiped out from the treeline. Eva managed to duck under it and the demon jumped out and revealed itself. Eva let Dante and Vergil go, freeing her arms to fight._

_"Dante, Vergil, keep running and get to town! I'll catch up to you when I can!"_

_"But mom…!" protested Dante._

_She batted away an attacking claw and retaliated with a bone shattering punch to its ribcage._

_"For the last time, done argue with me, just run and get safe!" _

_Dante felt a hand on his arm and turned to face Vergil. "Dante, we have to go! We'll just be getting in mom's way!"_

_"We can't just leave her!"_

_"Dante!" he heard his mother call. He turned around again and faced her._

_"It's more dangerous here than anywhere else, just get to town!"_

_Suddenly the demon she thought she had beaten grabbed her leg. She whipped around and threw her fist downward, slamming it into its wrist and practically severing its hand from its arm. While she was bent over and turned around though, another demon leaped out from the treeline. It brought its claw down on Eva and sliced up her back. While she wailed in pain, the demon delivered a punch to her side, knocking her into a tree._

_"Mom!" they both shouted, forgetting about their directions to run away and instead running towards her._

_"Run now!" she cried._

_The demon re-appeared again and rushed forward, and right before both her sons, Eva was impaled by five claws in her chest. That was when everything hit them, and Dante and Vergil suddenly both had the uncontrollable drive to run away as fast as they could. The two brothers turn tail and dashed down the dirt road. They could hear the roars of the demon as it followed them zealously. _

_They ran as fast as their short legs could take them until they came to the bridge that led to the stone road that marked the last leg of their run to town. It was there, on the bridge over a raging river that they stopped to breath. The roars had stopped, and they hoped that they had lost him. They both panted heavily as everything that had happened was absorbed._

"_She's dead…mom's dead," sobbed Vergil._

_He was down on the ground before he even knew what hit him. He looked up and Dante his hands balled into fists. _

"_Don't say that, don't ever say that! She's not dead!"_

_Vergil pushed himself up and rubbed his jaw. "Yes she is Dante, and we need to keep moving!"_

_Dante covered his ears. "Quit saying that, she's not!"_

_"Look, Dante…"_

_Vergil never managed to finish his sentence. The demon that had been chasing them leaped down onto the bridge. It would have easily finished them if it hadn't been for the aged wood. The sudden addition of weight caused it to creak and snap, breaking the bridge. The demon plummeted into the waters and was swiftly swept away by the current. There was only one problem_

_Vergil went with it._

_"Dante!" he cried as he was washed away by the river._

_He had no idea what to do; suddenly he was all alone. The only thing the seven year old could think to was to follow his mother's instructions and run to town. Maybe he would wash up near the town, maybe they could rescue Vergil._

_So he ran._

* * *

Dante sighed as he finally put the memory away. He just sat there, staring at the lowering sun and flipping his lotus tile. He pushed the depressing thoughts aside and tried to think about something better. He remembered talking to Piandao about his mother. Apparently, according to him based on what Dante had told him, she had been a practitioner of a special kind of martial art. It involved focusing a person's chi into specific muscles in the body, increasing strength beyond the norm. Seeing her fight that night, he could believe it.

Dante caught the tile again and looked down at it. Looking at it, he found himself smiling again. That was another day he remembered clearly. He could see it in perfect detail, the day his life made a turn for the better.

His most prominent step towards the person he was today.

_

* * *

"Get back here you little bastard!"_

_A twelve year old Dante dashed down the street of the most recent village he'd come across, a loaf of bread tucked under his arm and Rebellion still in its cloth slung onto his back. He'd been traveling the Northwestern edge of the Earth Kingdom, still in the same region as his hometown, but quite a distance away. _

_He was currently running from a Fire Nation soldier after being caught stealing bread from a roadside vendor. Five years of constant travel and conserved eating had done wonders for his physical being. He was extremely fast and fit, easily overpowering people even twice his age. He'd run back and beat that soldier senseless to if he weren't so hungry._

_He tore pieces of the bread off and ate greedily as he ran. He was able to keep a good distance between him and the soldier, and was confident he could get away. _

_"Catch me if you can hot heads!" he called back mockingly._

_Suddenly a second soldier rushed out from an alleyway and blocked his way. Dante, not wanting to slow down, instead ran faster and threw all his weight forward onto his shoulder. He slammed directly into the soldier, knocking them both to the ground. While the soldier had the wind knocked out of him and stunned heavily, Dante was back on his feet in an instant. _

_After that, he ran faster than ever. He kept running and running until he was completely out of the village all together. Half a loaf of bread still in hand –he'd eaten half of it during his escape- he dropped to the ground against one of the occasional trees in the low fields outside the village. He sat there and ate in relative peace, a nice breeze rolling in. _

_ "Well now, that was quite a display. You have some strong legs on you," said a rough and airy voice._

_He looked up to see an older man, tanned skin, loose black and red cloths, his hair in a topknot, and a sword at his hip. Dante spit to his side and glared up at him._

_"Whatcha want old man?" he growled._

_The old man sat down across from him with a calm and patience expression. "I was merely impressed with your speed. Most kids your age aren't nearly as swift, you've got a gift."_

_"Pfft, whatever. Look, I ain't in the mood to talk to some old geezer, so why don't you go and yell at kids to get off your lawn or somethin'."_

_He nodded. "Very well, just answer me one last question though. Why does such a young boy need such a large sword?"_

_Dante stopped eating and raised his eyes up only so far to glare daggers at him. "That's none of your business."_

_"Can you even use it? For that matter, can you even lift it?"_

_Just to shut the guy up, he un-slung the cloth and loosened the fabric cords holding it closed, pulling Rebellion out and lifting it with one arm._

_"There, I can use it, see?"_

_The man chuckled. "You can lift it, but I seriously doubt you can use it."_

_Dante roared and swung Rebellion in a wide arc. The man leaned backwards and the sword missed completely, and as soon as the roll came full circle, he sprung to his feet. Dante wasn't deterred and came at him full speed. He slashed and thrust wildly, but his opponent –despite his age- was able to fluidly sidestep and duck out of the way of his attacks with ease. The man could tell, just by the swings, that not only was this boy faster than average, he was also stronger; no wonder that tussle with the soldier didn't deter him._

_Eventually Dante tired, expending too much energy in his swings, and instead fell to his hands and knees, panting his lungs out. The man stood over him, his arms folded behind his back._

_"As I said before, you can hold it, but you can't use it."_

_"Shut up!" he shouted, his voice shaking. It was clear from his tone and his shaking shoulders that he was crying._

_The man knelt down in front of him. "Tell me, why is it that you cry?"_

_Dante shook his head, but said nothing._

_"You know, the second I saw you I recognized the look in those eyes. Those are the eyes of a boy who's lost something dear to him."_

_Dante sobbed. "I'll kill em'."_

_"Kill who, might I ask?"_

_"They killed my family, they're all gonna die," he growled._

_The man nodded. "I see, revenge. Well, unfortunately I can't help you with revenge. Let me share a little wisdom from some past experience."_

_"I know how you feel, I to lost my family when I was young. My father went off to fight in the war, and my mother fell ill. My older sister tried her best to keep the family together but…one day she just never came home. Eventually my mother passed, I was about your age I believe when that happened. My story differs from yours in the fact that my family was not killed, but merely fell apart. The part of this story that coincides with yours is this. A while after I left home to try and make it on my own, I too was caught stealing from a shop. That was when I met the man that would eventually become my master. At that time I was bitter and cynical from the loss of my family, but he had the patience to look past that, and after he and I connected, he offered to train me in the art of the sword, to give me a home. And here I am today, in the exact same position as my master, talking to a young man distraught with anger and sorrow. Destiny is a funny thing indeed."_

_Dante sniffed and finally sat normally, his eyes red and puffy. "Do…do you think…you could train me?"_

_The man smiled. "Under one condition only."_

_He looked up curiously. "What?"_

_"I will only teach you if you promise to renounce your goals for revenge. I refuse to teach anyone who would abuse the power swordsmanship grants."_

_Dante looked down in sadness and confusion. "But…if I don't have revenge, what do I have to fight for?"_

_"You fight so that you can save others from the same life you've led up till now," he answered simply._

_After a moment of thought, Dante nodded slowly._

_"Good, then come with me, it's a long walk back to my home."_

_Dante smiled and took the man's hand as they both stood up. As they walked down the road they got acquainted further._

_"Dante eh? That's an odd name, but then again, you're an odd boy, so it fits perfectly. My name is Piandao, or for you, Master Piandao."_

_"So, Master Piandao, do you think I'll make a good swordsman?"_

_Piandao smiled and put a hand on Dante's head, ruffling his hair a bit. "Dante, I have no doubt you'll make an excellent swordsman. To be honest, you remind me quite a bit of my old master."_

_"How?"_

_"Well, he wasn't very old when I met him, but even then he had the same funny white hair as you."_

* * *

That was one of the few bright spots in his childhood. For the next three years he trained with Piandao and increased his skills. Of course, only a year afterwards, the incident came around that really garnered him fame, or in the Fire Nations case, infamy. He couldn't quite remember all the details, but the day he became Redgrave to the Fire Nation Army started out quite normally.

He guessed something must have happened to his head somewhere during the battle then, because his normally sharp memory couldn't recall anything specific. The only thing he could remember was the little girl. She was young, very young, and most of the reason he'd take such a liking to her was her resemblance to his mother. She even had hair like her mothers, which was extraordinarily rare, so much so that last he heard; only about a dozen or so have that color of hair naturally in the entire world.

When he saw her in danger, he guessed something in him snapped, and he rushed to her defense without even considering the consequences. Four hundred and ninety-eight dead soldiers later and he was something of a legend in the Fire Nation. He could definitely use that to his advantage during the invasion. Who would be expecting Redgrave to come rushing in on the frontlines of an invasion of the Fire Nation capitol?

Dante reached into his rear pocket, the one that didn't already hold his lotus tile. In it was a single object which he pulled out and gazed at: a smooth green stone. It had been a present from the little girl he'd saved, a thank you present. It was among his greatest treasures, along with Rebellion, his trench-coat, Piandao's lotus tile, and his mothers amulet. He made sure to carry it everywhere he went.

After putting everything back in its proper place, he looked up at the sky. It was dark now, everyone was probably either finishing dinner, or was already in bed. Expect for maybe Aang of course, he was probably still meditating.

The time it took to move down the volcano took much less time than going up it. Running down a slope gave him a great speed boost, and he made it down to the bottom in half the time it took to climb up. He walked across the dead and buried island until he found their campsite again. He had been right, everyone else save for Aang was asleep.

He was about to head for his bedroll when he stopped. He found himself looking at the four of them. Not just looking but really_ looking_, and suddenly he smiled.

It had been eleven years since he had lost his mother and been separated from his brother. He'd lost everything that night, but then five years later, he met Piandao and he gained a father figure. He'd been thankful for that, but now, just a little over a month ago in fact, he gained something more.

He had two bossy and annoying sisters, two idiotic and immature brothers, plus two furry pets. It was an odd feeling being the older brother for a change, but he wouldn't take it lightly.

After all, he couldn't have found a better family.

**

* * *

So...good?**

**Next chapter we should be getting back on with the action, at least to some degree. I really need to start working on my other fics to, so I probably won't have another update for a while. Sorry.**


	11. Chapter 11: The Runaway

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 11

**The Runaway**

Hello all, I'm back again with more goodness!I know, I usually have a different title than the episode I'm on, but I honestly couldn't think of one, so just ignore it.

Anyway, still technically a filler until the invasion, but it's still got its funny moments, and Dante continues to grow closer to the gaang as he adjusts to his surrogate family. As expected, he'll be spending a good deal goofing around with and talking to Toph, seeing as the episode focuses mainly on her.

Read and tell me what ya think at the end.

* * *

Dante glanced to his right and left. On either side of him stood Katara, her arms coated in water, and Toph at the ready in an earthbending stance. He himself gripped Cerberus in his right hand. The tension was building and he could just taste the fight to come.

"Okay, I'm ready for some training!" said Aang cheerily.

The young avatar had a blindfold over his eyes, and he took a few uncertain steps forward, breathing steadily and sending all his senses on high alert. Toph thought it time to teach Aang her greatest and most potent technique: The Seismic Sense. He would be fighting all three of them at once blinded, using only Toph's techniques to fight. To avoid any accidental fatal wounds, Dante chose to use Cerberus over Rebellion. It was still a deadly weapon, but there was less chance of severe injury with its lighter weight and blunter edges.

Aang stood motionless for a moment, sensing his surroundings. Suddenly he strode forward, dodging a rock that jutted up from the ground. He repeated the action twice more in a zig-zag patter, just barely avoiding the underground attacks each time.

He then sensed an attack coming from Katara, and leaned back, letting the water pass over him. He waterbent the stream back at Katara and twisted around, pulling a rock from the ground and thrusting it forward. Toph easily caught it and crushed it.

"Good job Twinkle Toes; visualize, then attack," she said, punching the rock back at him.

Aang literally drilled his way underground, causing the rock Toph threw to fly towards Katara. Dante saw it coming and flung his arm towards the rock. One of the prongs on Cerberus extended forward, embedding itself in the rock. He quickly yanked it to his left, and threw the rock harmlessly into the air, away from Katara.

Katara breathed a sigh of relief, and scowled at Toph. "That almost hit me Toph; maybe you should follow your own advice!"

Toph smirked. "What's the matter, can't handle a little dirt madam fussy-bridges?"

Dante sighed, "Here we go."

He decided to just sit down and watch the show.

Katara used her bending and brought up a wall of water that conveniently parted around Aang and doused Toph.

"Oops, did I splash you mudslug?"

Toph began earth-surfing towards Katara, and she mirrored the action, sliding on a pedestal of ice. The two ended up colliding and flying off their respective modes of transportation.

Meanwhile, Sokka jumped up from behind Aang and ran towards him, lungs blaring.

"YAAAAAH; sneak attack!"

Aang simply raised his right hand and shot a rock up from the ground right in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. Dante snickered at the look on his face.

"Heh, blindfolded uppercut, now that's the mark of a badass," he chuckled.

"Sokka, it's not a sneak attack if you yell it out loud."

They both looked over a splatter of mud hit Dante. Katara and Toph were in the middle of a mud battle/wrestling match. Dante's eye began to twitch and he stood up, making a b-line for the messy battlefield.

"Just cleaned this freakin' coat yesterday," he grumbled.

The two younger girls were locked in a power struggle when Dante walked into the mix and lifted them both up; Toph by her collar, and Katara by the strap going over her shoulder.

"As entertainin' as this is ladies, we've had an unexpected casualty," he said, nodding his head downward towards his dirtied jacket, "so pack it up and settle down."

With that, he dropped them, the both of them landing on their bums in the mud.

"Dante's right, I believe we've had enough training for today," said Katara as she stood up from the mud.

Toph hopped up from the mud as well, bending both herself and Dante clean. "Well, while Katara cleans up, let's go have some fun!"

* * *

The four of them walked through a nearby Fire Nation town. As they looked around, they passed a messenger hawk mail center, which caught Sokka's eye.

"Check out those messenger hawks. I've been thinking about getting one for myself, that way I'd never have to talk to anyone, I could just send those messages."

"I gotta say, I like the idea of not talking to you," joked Toph.

Dante snickered and fist bumped Toph. Sokka scowled but didn't say anything. Aang, wanting to avoid any possible conflicts, interjected on the conversation.

"So guys, what should we get with our last silver piece."

Toph stopped. "We can get more money."

They all looked back in confusion and curiosity. She pointed down into an alleyway below. "Right there."

Down below was a gambling table, and what looked to be a variation of the shell game. Three cups, one rock, find the rock and you win, simple and easily manipulated, one of the key games for the traveling con-artist. Dante, with his luck, had been swindled more times than he cared to admit, but in return it granted him a valuable skill, and that was that he was pretty damn good at spotting scammers and con-artists, and he knew a few of their tricks. This guy utterly screamed it.

Normally he would have warned Sokka and Aang, but he knew Toph was well aware this wasn't a fair game, and her blindness along with her unique earthbending made her a con-artists nightmare. She could just as easily scam the scammer as he would the next person that walked by.

He was interested to see how this went.

"This is where you _seeing _people are at a disadvantage. Everyone guesses wrong because the dealer moves the rock at the last minute, but I can feel it with my earthbending."

One man was already playing the game, and apparently chose wrong, or in this case, fell victim to the scammers tricks. He sobbed as he and a friend walked away; poor guy probably bet his wage. As the people thinned out, only the four of them remained. The dealer caught sight of them immediately and could easily tell Toph was blind. Thinking he had the advantage, he invited her to play a game, and in doing so, had already lost.

"You there, wanna play a friendly game?"

Toph put on her innocent face. "How could I possibly play, I'm blind?"

As she said that, Dante worried for a second. Here she was saying she was blind, and she just grabbed a coin out of Aang's hand. They were incredibly lucky that the dealer didn't seem to notice. If he _had_ seen that little stunt, he would have known instantly Toph was trying to fool him.

The dealer smirked. "You don't have to be able to see to be lucky."

She complied and sat down in front of the table, doing a pretty good job pretending to not be able to see where she was going. She fumbled around the table with her hands, and felt around for the cups. Once she felt she'd played her part enough, she set the coin down.

The dealer then began the game, lifting all the cups up and presenting the pebble. As he shifted the cups around, Dante didn't miss his little slight of hand trick. He had to admit, the guy wasn't totally without skill. He at least understood how to hook people into the game. He'd give them the first match by placing two extra pebbles from his sleeve under the two vacant cups and building their confidence. After all, what good was it to scam someone who wasn't committed to the game; you'd never make any money.

As expected, Toph obviously won, and the dealer handed her the winnings.

"Flame-yo, Toph!" said Aang, obviously impressed and unaware of what the dealer had pulled.

"Wow, fancy guessing, you're amazing at this! Would you like to make the game a little more interesting?"

"More interesting, how?" she asked in her innocent tone.

He stroked his chin. "Well let's say you toss in your friends' fine sword there, and I bet twenty pieces against it, and that's more interesting."

And there it was. This was the point of the game where the dealer would start pulling out his tricks to fool the player. He'd try to hide or move the pebble in some way, most probably between cups, that was the most common method; of course this guy seemed fond of hiding the pebbles in his sleeve, so Dante would watch for that to.

Sokka held his sword tight, but Toph still wrenched it from his grip. "I'll do it for forty silver pieces."

The dealer had a confident look on his face. "Forty silver pieces it is."

He once again began mixing the cups around, only at a much faster pace than before. The two extra pebbles were thrown back into his sleeve, and then he went for the last one, making certain Toph would lose the game. Toph could sense it, just as Dante could see it, and she had her own little trick. She earthbent the pebble back under the cup as the game came to a stop.

She pointed to the middle cup. The dealer was utterly convinced that he had the upper hand, and didn't suspect a thing as he reached for the cup.

"Sorry little lady but…huh?"

He pressed his face against the table, checking to make sure the pebble was actually there. All things considered, Dante thought the little charade went pretty well. That was until…

"I won!" Toph shouted happily.

It took all his energy not to smack her upside the head. Luckily for her, she grabbed the money and Sokka's sword too quickly for him to do anything, and they all bolted down the street.

* * *

An hour later, the four of them came back to the campsite, hauling at least two weeks worth of food. Being forty silver pieces richer was never a bad thing. As they walked, Dante, like any other responsible older brother figure, was explaining to Toph why what she did was wrong.

"See, when ya shouted that ya won, it was basically the equivalent of holding a sign that says, 'I'm faking!', you're lucky that dealer was too surprised that he lost to care. On top of that, I noticed you grabbed that coin from Aang's hand right after you said you were blind, that's another mistake. If you're gonna scam someone, you gotta stick to your cover story one-hundred percent, especially when there are more people watching. Ya never know who might notice you slipped up and call you out on it."

She nodded. "I got it, but how do you know so much about gambling?"

"I've dealt with my fair share of cheats and scam artists; they all usually use the same kind of tricks."

Katara as sitting by herself cooking what looked like stew when they set down their supplies. She looked at all the food, wondering where they had gotten it all.

"Where did you guys get the money to buy all this stuff?"

"Toph got us money! She scammed one of those guys who move the shells around!" answered Aang.

"She used Earthbending to win the game, classic!" exclaimed Sokka.

"Yeah, for a rookie she didn't do too bad," said Dante, standing over Toph and ruffling her hair.

"Oh, so she cheated."

"Hey, I only cheated because he was cheating, I cheated a cheater, what's wrong with that?"

"I'm just saying this isn't something we should make a habit out of doing," she defended.

Dante sighed. "Relax Katara, it's just little scam, don't make a mountain out of a molehill."

"It's not that Dante, she just hates fun," said Toph.

"I do not hate fun!"

She promptly grabbed Momo and sat him atop her head.

"See, fun?"

"More like crazy," Dante mumbled.

Aang stood up and lifted up his headband. "Katara, I'll personally make you an avatar promise that we won't make a make a habit out of doing these scams."

While Aang had Katara distracted, Dante had his arm over Toph's shoulder, the both of them smirking like devils.

"Got any more tips?" she whispered.

"Twerp, class is in session; I think it's time for a field-trip."

**

* * *

(One scamtastic montage later)**

The four of them returned to the campsite after a successful streak of gambling, hustling, and scamming. Sure it was illegal, but damn it all if it wasn't the most fun Dante had had all week. Of course, for all fun, there is a buzz-kill.

"Guys, I think these scams have gone far enough, if you keep doing this something bad is going to happen," warned Katara.

Dante sighed. "Okay, sure, this might end up blowing up in our face, but so has everything else we've ever done, and we've gotten by okay. I'm sure if somethin' does happen, it won't be nearly as bad as some of the other stuff we've survived. We survived blowing up that Fire Nation factory and the demon that was unleashed because of it, which was your idea I might add. We survived getting found out at Aang's crazy dance party. Hell, we survived my brother and psycho-bitch Azula at Ba Sing Se. We'll be fine."

Katara, clearly flustered, scowled at him. "Weren't you the one who was always wanting to lay low? What about your brother, what if he finds out where you are, what'll we do then? You said yourself you're the only one who has a chance against him, and even you lost!"

"True, but how many towns and villages have we passed through? More than I can count. I didn't see one wanted poster for me at all. I'm guessing whatever my bro's up to, he doesn't really care what I do anymore, and Azula doesn't really have any reason to single me out, so if Vergil isn't goin after me, then I've got some wiggle room. Besides, everyone things Aang's dead, so if we do get caught, as far as anyone's gonna be concerned we're just a few cheats, not the avatar's rabble of rebels. We'll be able to make our way out of any trouble we might get into."

"Katara, would you for once stop being such a sourpuss and lighten up," retorted Toph, flipping a coin to her.

Now her frustration was centered on Toph. "Oh, so I should be more like you, some kind of wild child?"

"Yes, maybe, then maybe you'd see just how great we have it! I mean look at us, we're traveling around the world, making easy money, having fun, with no parents to tell us what to do!"

Katara grew a knowing grin. "Ah, I see, you're acting like this because of your parents."

"Whatever," groaned Toph, blowing off the comment.

"They were controlling over you, so you ran away and now you're acting like your parents don't exist. You act like you hate them but you don't, you just feel guilty."

"I do hate them."

"I don't think so, I think you miss them, but you just don't want to deal with that, so instead you act like this crazy person."

Toph stood up, not taking any more of it. "Look, I ran away to help Aang!"

"You know what, it doesn't matter! These scams put us all at risk and we don't need that! We've already got some third eyed freak after us!"

Sokka raised his hand. "Speaking of which, I think I've come up with a name for him. What do you think of: Sparky Sparky Boom Man!"

Dante cut in. "Actually, I just call him Combustion Man…ya know, because of the explosions and stuff."

Sokka shrugged. "Just think about it."

"We have enough money, you need to stop this!" shouted Katara, completely ignoring the three boys sitting in front of her and Toph.

"I'll stop when I wanna stop, and not when you tell me!" Toph shouted back, earthbending a bag of coins into her hands and storming off to make an earth tent.

For a moment no one spoke.

"Well speaking of money, I'm off to spend some, see ya everybody," said Sokka as he to walked off.

* * *

By the time Sokka got back, Aang and Katara were training in the river below their campsite. Meanwhile, Dante was taking a small nap on top of Appa's head, who was also snoozing. Toph was contently counting money as the Water Tribe warrior approached her with a piece of paper in his hand.

"Toph, when I was in town I found something you're not gonna like," he said, presenting her with a wanted poster of her, albeit a bit crudely drawn.

"Well it sounds like a piece of paper, but I guess you're referring to what's on the piece of paper."

"It's a wanted poster, of you! They've nicknamed you The Runaway!"

"A wanted poster, that's so great! The Runaway; I love my new nickname! Is there a picture of me, does it look good?"

He glanced from her to the paper, then between the two again. "Well actually yeah, it does look pretty good. But, Toph, you're missing the point. Maybe Katara was right; these scams are drawing too much attention to us."

Toph didn't seem worried, and grabbed a sack of coins. "Don't be such a worry-wart like your sister. Think of it this way, now you have plenty of money to fund the invasion plan."

"Well that is true, I had this idea of making armor for Appa."

She handed him the sack of gold coins. "Well here, take a little something extra to get yourself a nice map of the fire nation…actually make it an atlas."

"I do like expensive atlases," he said, taking the coin bag.

"And that's why this wanted poster will stay our little secret," she said as she snatch the poster and stuffed it under her vest before walking away. Little did she knew, Dante had woken up from his sleep when Sokka had started shouting about Toph's new alias.

From what he'd heard, the situation had blown up in their face, or was at least in the position to. He shared the same concerns as Sokka, but unlike him, Dante was not as easily swayed by money. He had hoped that a girl as smart Toph would know when to pack it in and call it quits, but if she kept this up, this small isolated incident could turn potentially threatening. He was all for having fun while it lasted, but once wanted posters started popping up, even he knew it was time to quit and take what you had.

Sokka obviously wasn't going to be much help in this matter, and Aang was way too pacifistic to really be of any help against someone as utterly stubborn as Toph. That left him only one option: it was time for Operation Buzz-kill.

* * *

Later that day, Katara was preparing some early dinner while Dante was polishing Rebellion nearby, having already finished his. She bent a large amount of the stew she made into Appa's mouth for him to eat. Just then, Sokka and Toph returned from town carrying one large sack each.

"Well, look who decided to show up. Where have you two been, off scamming again?"

"Yes, we were."

"And I suppose you don't think what you're doing is dangerous at all?"

"No, I don't."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really."

She dug into her cloth belt and pulled out the wanted poster. "Then what's this?"

"I don't know, I mean seriously, what's with you people, I'm blind!"

"It's a wanted poster of you, The Runaway! Is that what you're called now, are you proud of this?"

"Where did you get that?"

Dante took this as his cue to slowly scoot away a bit over to Sokka and Aang until the argument was done.

Katara crossed her arms. "It doesn't matter where I got it, the fact is-"

"You went through my stuff, you had no right!"

"Your stuff was messy, I was trying to clean it up and I happened to stumble upon it!"

Toph pointed an accusing finger. "That's a lie, you're lying Katara!"

Katara shoved her finger away. "Fine, it's a lie, but you've been so out of control lately, I knew something was up, I knew you were hiding something and you were!"

Toph ripped the poster out of her hand and threw it aside before storming away.

"Don't you walk away from me while I'm talking to you!"

"Oh really _mom_, and what are you gonna do, send me to my room?"

"I wish I could!" shouted Katara.

"Well you can't, because you're not my mom and you're not their mom!" she yelled back, gesturing to Aang, Sokka, and Dante.

"I never said I was!"

"No but you certainly act like it! You act like it's your job to boss everyone around but it's not! You're just a regular kid like the rest of us, so stop acting like you can tell me what to do! I can do whatever I want!"

Katara didn't respond for a moment before looking back up. "I don't act that way…Sokka do I act motherly?"

He put his hands up in defense. "Hey, I'm stayin' out of this one."

"What about you Aang?" she asked, seemingly going down the line.

"Uh…well I…"

"Stop rubbing your eye and speak clearly when you talk!" she demanded.

"Yes ma'am!"

"I can't be around you right now!" shouted Toph, and continued with her storming off.

"Well I can't be around you!"

They both walked away to opposite sides of the campsite. Sokka's new hawk, which he had oh so cleverly named "Hawky", gave a squak.

"I know Hawky, why can't they just get along?"

* * *

This mutual cold shoulder between Toph and Katara lasted through the rest of the day. It was sunset now, and while Aang and Sokka sat, trying to think of ways to rectify the situation between the two, Dante was lounging around behind them with Momo curled up on his stomach.

"Hey Aang, you wanna test out my messenger Hawk with me, I've got an idea?"

"Sure," he agreed, leaning over so Sokka could present his idea.

"I'm gonna send a note to Katara, and say it's from Toph who wants to apologize, and everyone will be friends again."

"I gotta say Sokka, you continuously impress me with your idea's."

He shrugged. "Eh, it's a gift."

Suddenly they both felt a hard slap to the back of their heads. Hey both looked up and saw Dante sitting up behind them.

"What was that for!" shouted Sokka.

"You're both idiot's you know? Think about it, how could the Twerp send Katara a message? For one, she's blind, she can't read or write, and two, it's your hawk, so she'll know it's from you anyway. You'll only make things worse."

"What do we do then, we can't just let this go on like this," said Aang.

"Leave it to me, Sokka you go see if you can't get through to your sister."

"I think she just went down to the river, I'm not gonna mess with her while she's training."

He sighed. "Fine, anyway I'll be back in a sec."

Dante walked away from the two and headed for Toph. He already knew she could sense him coming, but that didn't stop him from announcing himself anyway.

"Yo, Twerp, we need to talk about some stuff."

* * *

The two walked out to a cliff over the river that was a good distance from the campsite so they wouldn't be interrupted. Toph sat at the edge with her feet dangling, and Dante did the same.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" she asked.

He sighed before starting. "Mostly about all that stuff earlier when Katara was giving you heat about your parents and the scamming."

"Yeah, totally a pain, am I right?"

"Look Toph, you remember when I told you about my family right? How my dad was never there, and my mom died when I was really young?"

"…yeah, I remember."

"Well, before my family fell apart, I was like you. My mom was super bossy, she had a strict schedule for everythin', she always had expectations me and my brother had to meet. I really hated it, and I wanted nothing more than to just leave it all behind and go on adventures on my own, ya know, no rules or nothin'."

He paused for a second. "Well, I got my wish. After my mom died, I had no one to rely on but myself. I had to feed myself, protect myself, go to bed alone. When I was a kid I thought it'd be great to just be on my own. When it finally happened though, the only thing I wanted was to go back home."

"What I'm trying to say Toph is that for all her bossiness, for all her nosiness, and for all her motherly attitude; I would have traded anything to have someone like Katara around after my mother died. I'm the newest member of the group, and even I can see how much she cares about you in particular."

There was a silence for a while, just the two of them sitting over the cliff as the sun dropped lower and lower under the horizon.

"I guess…I never thought about that," she said softly.

"Katara does act motherly sometimes, but I guess that's not always a bad thing. She's compassionate and kind, and she actually cares about me…you know, the real me. That's more than my own mom."

Dante grinned. "Ya know Twerp, we all care about the real you. Hell, the real you is the coolest twelve year old on the planet, and don't you let anybody tell ya otherwise."

With that he stood up and offered her a hand. "Come on, we should get back."

Toph took his hand with a smile. Dante started walking once she was up, but when she said his name, he stopped and turned around again.

"What's up Twerp?"

She walked up to him, lifted her arms, and out of no where gave him a hug. Dante was a little surprised, Toph wasn't much for hugging, and when she did hug someone, it was usually a group thing, not a one-on-one thing. He grinned and placed a hand on her head, seeing as she only reached up to just a little over the bottom of his rib cage.

"I'll beat you senseless you if you tell anyone about this," she said, still latched onto him.

Dante chuckled. "I'd be disappointed if you didn't Twerp."

* * *

It was just about night when Dante and Toph made it back to camp. Toph had already agreed to apologize to Katara, and would stop scamming people. All things considered, Dante was quite content with himself.

As luck would have it, Katara was just up ahead. Dante ruffled Toph's hair one last time before he passed Katara and leaving the two to make up.

"Hi Toph…Um, I wanna…"

Toph raised a hand to stop her. "Katara stop, you don't need to apologize, I was the one being stupid, these scams are out of control and I'm done with them."

"Actually, I wasn't going to apologize. I was gonna say…I wanna pull a scam with you."

All three boys were in earshot of this. Sokka and Aang both had dumbstruck looks on their faces, and Dante choked on the water he was drinking, causing him to drop the cup.

"What, you wanna pull a scam?" asked Toph, obviously as confused as everyone else.

"Not just any scam, the ultimate scam. What do you Toph, just you and me, one last go; you in?"

"You know I'm in, now what's this idea of yours?"

* * *

It was the next day, and Katara and Toph had gone into town to pull their scam. Aang was worried and was pacing madly back and forth across the campgrounds. Sokka sat there cross-legged watching him.

"Do you think that scam of theirs should be taking this long?"

"I'm sorta just wondering where Dante wandered off to, that guy can be really sneaky when he wants to be. Anyway, we should probably go into town to check up on them."

Sokka turned to Momo and Hawky. "You two behave, Appa's in charge."

* * *

Meanwhile, Katara and Toph sat in a wooden cell. After Katara had purposefully turned Toph in for the reward, planning on having her break out, she herself had been captured by none other than Combustion man. Neither of them counted on a wooden cell, so they were trapped.

"Wait, it's a trap!"

"Really, no kiddin', is that why we're sitting in a wooden cage right now? Gee, how'd you figure out it was a trap?" said Katara sarcastically.

"Not for us Katara, we're the bait. He wants Aang."

"Aw, I can't believe I was so stupid! See this is exactly why I'm against these scams, I knew this would happen!"

"…But, this was your idea," pointed out Toph.

"I know. I wanted to show you that I'm not so motherly. I wanted to show you that I can have fun to."

"Katara, you are fun. If nothing else, you're at least fun to argue with."

"I know your relationship with your parents is complicated, and I shouldn't have said what I said."

"It's okay; I war really mad when you said that because…well because maybe it's true. I try not to think about it, but when I left, I probably really hurt them."

Toph started to sob, and Katara wasted no time in trying to comfort her. Toph probably would have been like that for at least another minute or two, but they were both thrown out of their respective emotional stances when the front door of the prison was kicked open. The next thing they heard were the clunking of familiar boots.

Dante walked into the room with Rebellion in hand and resting it on his shoulder. He grinned cockily as he walked up to the cell.

"Hey there campers, how the hell are ya?"

"Dante!" they both said happily in unison.

"You know anybody else this good looking? The correct answer is no by the way. Jokes aside though, looks like I was right, Katara really can't pull off a scam."

"It was going fine until Combustion Man showed up for your information," retorted Katara.

"So I guess we decided on the guys' name, huh? Well, let's get you two outta here and then we'll make sure the kid and Sokka aren't blown to bits."

He lifted Rebellion off his shoulder. "You might wanna stand back a bit ladies."

The complied and in four quick slashes and a slight pull, a nice square opening was created for Katara and Toph to escape from. Just then, a large boom shook the building and some dust fell from ceiling.

"Hm, sounds like everybody's here, let's get a move on," commented Dante.

* * *

Aang and Sokka ran straight into an alleyway, just narrowly escaping a blast from Combustion Man. They were both thrown forward by the force of the blast, and while Aang landed fine, Sokka was thrown into a wooden cart, which toppled over, knocking him to the ground. After Aang helped him up, they both hid behind the cart.

"This guy is too good; he shoots fire from his brain!"

"We should split up, he can't chase up both!" suggested Aang.

Meanwhile, Combustion Man walked through the smoke and fired another blast as Aang and Sokka ran for it, destroying the cart. Aang jumped up to the rooftops and ran past him again, trying to reach the end of the alley. Combustion Man caught sight of him though, and fired another blast, throwing him off the building and straight for the metal statue of the Fire Lord.

Just as he was about to smack face first into the metallic sculpture however, he felt someone grab him and throw him over their shoulder. The next thing he knew, he was fling through the air, and ended up on top of the statue's head.

"Just can't stay outta trouble can ya kid?" came the sarcastic voice of Dante.

"Good thing Cerberus can extend, otherwise you woulda pulled off the worlds most painful face-plant," he said, spinning the blue weapon around on his wrist.

He looked down and Combustion Man and smiled. "Brain freeze!"

The next moment, the three eyed mercenary's head was covered in a column of ice.

"Exits stage left!" exclaimed Dante as he leaped from the statue. Just as Combustion Man broke free from the ice, he looked up to see Dante coming down at him from the statue. The twin boots of the master swordsman slammed into his head and knocked him clean into the ground.

He didn't waste any time running like crazy after landing. If there was one thing he knew, it was that Combustion Man never learned; he was gonna try and shoot them again, and there was gonna be an explosion when he did.

He threw Aang forward and the airbending stumbled as he tried to keep his footing and keep up with Dante and the rest of the group.

"Run, run, run, run, run!" shouted Dante, pushing the airbending along forcibly.

Just as expected, an explosion rocked the town square behind them, and Dante figured Combustion Man would be out of commission for a while.

"You were right Dante, Combustion Man fits really well," said Sokka as they ran out of the town.

"Great, not let's get outta here before he comes after us!" shouted Toph.

* * *

They rode all the way through the day and into the night. They set down in a remote little cranny, and decided they might as well settle down there. Dante was too lazy to get up, and decided he'd just sleep in the saddle.

Sokka yawned. "Well, I'm exhausted. Hawky, how 'bout you buddy? Yeah, you're such a lazy little bird."

With that, he hopped down from the saddle and went to set up his bedroll. Once he was gone, Toph addressed Katara.

"Katara, I need your help."

She went to go sit down across from her.

"What is it Toph?"

"I need you to write some things down for me, I wanna send a letter to my parents."

"I'll be happy to help."

Dante, who was lying in the saddle half asleep, was still able to catch the conversation, and he grinned ever so slightly. Toph and Katara both seemed to have come out of this whole experience a little bit better, and he felt a slight sense of accomplishment, because he'd been able to lend a hand.

Content with his work for the day, he let himself drift to sleep, thinking of his own mother, and hoping she was doing well, wherever she had ended up.

**

* * *

**

**And there you have it! Chapter eleven is done and submitted for your approval. I hope I'm remaining consistent with Dante's personality and his interactions with the characters. If you think something is a little off, tell me and I'll work on it.**

**Drop a review, the button's right there after all.**

**...what are you waiting for, press it...**

**..._press it_...**

**...****PRESS IT DAMN YOU!!!**


	12. Chapter 12: Femme Fatale

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 12

**Femme Fatale**

I have returned! New chapter, and one step closer to the invasion, which I'm just grinding my teeth in anticipation to write. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

Oh, and t.m.p.a? ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE!!!

* * *

It was the dead of night on a full moon, and the gang was gathered around a fire after dinner. Sokka had suggested they all tell scary stories. Their first choice was obvious, after all, Dante was the resident demon expert, so he of course had some terrifying stories to share. Of course, while his tales were no doubt gruesome and even nauseating, he didn't quite have the flare of the storyteller. He was acting like he was telling a joke rather than recounting a life or death battle with horrors from beyond the physical plane.

"So, the one's literally holding its intestines in its hands, tryin' like crazy to shove them back in," he laughed as he recounted a story, "and the other's crawlin' around feelin' for his eyeballs, and in the meantime, I'm just worried about all the blood that's on my coat. Let me tell ya, there was tons of it to, like just a total pond full. I was so bad my boots were sticky for days."

He finished with a nostalgic smile on his face. Meanwhile, Aang and Toph were visibly grossed out, Katara had a hand over her mouth, and Sokka was over in a bush hurling out the last of his dinner. That just made Dante laugh more.

"Man you guys are lightweights."

After Sokka returned to the camp fire, more than a little wobbly in the leg, they continued with their story telling.

"So, anybody else got one?" asked Dante.

"Well…I don't think I'll be able to follow that one up, but this is a true Southern Water Tribe story."

"Is this another one of those, a friend of my cousin knew some guy that this happened to story?" asked Sokka, recovering quickly from his vomiting session.

"No, it happened to mom."

Sokka immediately straightened up, and the rest of the group was pulled in as well.

"One winter, when mom was a girl, a snow storm buried the whole village for weeks. A month later, mom realized she hadn't seen her friend Mimi since the storm, so she and some others went to check on Mimi's family. When they got there, no one was home, just a fire flickering in the fire place. While the men went out to search, mom stayed in the house. When she was alone, she heard a voice: '_it's so cold, and I can't get warm'_. Mom turned and saw Mimi standing there by the fire. She was blue, like she was frozen; mom ran out for help, but when she came back, Mimi was gone."

At this point, Aang was huddle up with Momo, Toph was…Toph, and Sokka was hiding behind a large tree root. Meanwhile, Dante was contemplating the validity of the story. He'd met ghosts before. Hell, he'd met a few low level spirits before, so it was entirely possible, but then again, people were easily spooked.

"Where'd she go?" asked Sokka.

"No one knows. Mimi's house stands empty to this day, but sometimes people still see smoke coming up from the chimney, like little Mimi is still trying to get warm."

A silence fell over the group until Toph perked up and touched the ground with her hand. "Wait guys, did you hear that? I hear people under the mountain, and they're screaming!"

Sokka, Katara, and Aang were huddle close together until Sokka broke off from the trio.

"Pfft, nice try."

"No, I'm serious, I hear something."

"Y-you're probably just jump from the ghost stories," Katara reasoned.

Toph was quiet for a moment.

"It just…stopped."

"Okay, now I'm getting scared."

All of a sudden, a voice came from beyond the treeline. "Hello children."

Every one of them save for Dante shrieked and huddled back together. Dante just laughed more.

"Like I said; total lightweights."

Out of the shadows stepped an old woman with long and wild gray hair and common Fire Nation robes.

"Sorry if I startled you, my name is Hama. You children shouldn't be out in the forest by yourselves at night. I have an inn nearby, why don't you come back there for some spiced tea and warm beds," she offered.

Sokka looked relieved. "Yes please."

Meanwhile, Dante was wondering something. How did Dante hear that woman coming…when Toph didn't feel it first? He came to the conclusion that the screaming in the mountain might not be completely untrue after all.

* * *

Once they were back at Hama, they were all seated at a long table in a dining room, and served tea.

"Thank you for letting us stay here, you have a beautiful inn," complimented Katara.

Hama smiled. "Aren't you sweet; you should be careful, people have been disappearing in those woods you were camping in."

Dante's cup was just up to his lips when she said that, which caught his interest. He lowered his tea slightly. "Is that so?"

She nodded. "When the moon turns full, people walk in and they don't come out. Who wants more tea?"

Dante was simply staring into his cup.

"Interesting," he murmured.

"Don't worry," she reassured them, "you'll all be completely safe here. Why don't I show you to your rooms and you can get a good nights rest."

* * *

The next day Hama woke them all up early for some shopping in the local marketplace. Sokka and Dante were stuck carrying most everything they bought. As they walked down the road, Dante's ears perked up and he was able to listen in on a very interesting conversation.

"You won't have any Ash Banana's until next week?"

"Well I'd have to send the boy to Hing Hua Island to get them, and it's a two day trip."

"Oh right, tomorrow's the full moon."

"Exactly, I can't lose another delivery boy in the woods."

All these mysterious disappearances were definitely odd. He'd have to do some snooping around later; maybe even head into the woods at night to see what was up. He might be able to run into whatever was doing this and kill it. For now though, he wouldn't worry about it.

"People disappearing, full moon shenanigans, this just reeks of full moon shenanigans," said Sokka.

"I bet if we take a walk around town, we'll be able to find whatever these people did to the environment to make the spirits mad."

"It's not the spirits," said Dante suddenly.

"What do ya mean?" asked Aang.

"I mean, I've been getting a weird vibe about this whole village since set up camp last night, and now people are disappearing. I'm thinking this is something a little more demonic."

"You think, I mean the spirits have abducted people before to," protested Sokka.

"I didn't say it was definitely a demon, I said it was a possibility. Personally I hope it is a spirit, at least they can be reasoned with. If it is a demon, then it would have to be pretty slick, not to mention strong, to have captured people without one single witness. Who knows, it might even be another Devil Arm. Either way we won't know until we can poke around a little."

"Why don't you all take that back to the inn," said Hama, "I just need to run a couple more errands, I'll be back in a little while."

Sokka approached her suspiciously. "You have a pretty mysterious little village here."

Hama merely smiled. "Mysterious village for mysterious children."

With that, she walked off.

* * *

With Hama gone, the five of them returned to the inn with the groceries in tow. Sokka set down a carrying bowl of fruit.

"That Hama seems a little strange, like she knows something, or she's hiding something."

Katara was, unsurprisingly, the first to defend her. "That's ridiculous, she's a nice old lady who gave us a place to stay. She kinda reminds me of Gran-Gran."

"Yeah, but what did she mean by that comment, 'mysterious children'?" questioned Sokka, rubbing his chin.

"Gee, I don't know, maybe because she found five strange kids camping in the woods at night? Isn't that a little mysterious?"

Sokka still didn't seem convinced, and frankly, neither was Dante. He had to admit, even though he was sticking to he demon theory, Hama was pretty out of the ordinary. She had an underlying malicious air to her presence, one the demon hunter didn't take lightly. Because of this, a very rare phenomenon occurred, the likes of which Katara doubted she'd ever see again.

"I'm gonna take a look around," they both said in complete unison. Sokka and Dante were actually thinking the exact same thing. What was stranger was that neither of them seemed to even notice.

After the momentary surprise, Katara as well as Aang and Toph all ran after them. They were climbing a staircase when she called to them.

"Hey, what are you two doing? You can't just snoop around someone's house!"

"It'll be fine," Sokka assured them.

Dante opened a door; there was nothing really in the room.

"But she could be home any minute," said Aang nervously.

Both he and Sokka both continued down the hallway. Sokka found a cupboard on the wall and began yanking on it.

"Guys, you're going to get us in trouble, and this is just plain rude!" Katara scolded.

"We're not done yet."

Sokka pulled as hard as he could, and finally yanked the doors free. A few puppets ended up falling out, causing Sokka to leap backwards and draw his sword. Dante sidestepped him as he flew backwards, letting him hit the wall.

"I've got to admit that's pretty creepy," agreed Aang.

Katara closed up the cupboard. "So she's got a hobby, there's nothing weird about that. You two have looked enough, Hama will be back soon!"

They both ignored her as they climbed another staircase up to attic level. There was a single door to the left, which Sokka vigorously tried to open, but to no avail.

"An ordinary puppet loving in keeper huh; then why does she have a locked door up here?" he questioned.

"Probably to keep people like you from snooping through her stuff."

While this was going on, Dante had knelt down in front of the lock, and had pulled out two small pins from his pocket to try and pick it open. Just another skill he'd picked up while living on the streets.

"Well, it's empty unless you count that chest," he commented as he continued his attempted break in.

"Maybe its treasure!" exclaimed Toph.

Both she and Sokka got excited and wide eyed.

"Dante, this is crazy, you're breaking into a private room!" scolded Katara.

"Look, I'm not tryin' to justify this or nothin', but sometimes investigating involves a little bit of rule breaking. Like it or not, Hama definitely isn't normal, and what's in that chest could give us a clue as to why."

Just then, he heard the last of the tumblers click into place, and he grinned.

"And Bingo was his name-o," he muttered, and pushed open the door.

They all walked in at once, Dante leaning over and scooping up the chest. He tried to open it, but it was locked. He could have easily broken it open, but there was a fine line between snooping around, and destroying property.

"Great, another lock I have to pick," he sighed.

Toph extended her hand. "Wait, give it here."

He complied, and she bent her metal bracelet into a key, and inserted it into the lock.

"Hurry, hurry!" urged Sokka.

"This isn't as easy as it looks," she grumbled, meanwhile, Katara was practically having a conniption.

"Guys I don't know about this," said Aang hesitantly.

Katara finally gave up on them. "This is crazy, I'm leaving."

"Fine, suit yourself," dismissed Sokka, "do it Toph."

She took a few steps away, but when Toph finally opened the chest, she scrambled right up with everyone else to see what was inside.

"I'll tell you what's in the box," said a voice behind them.

They all whirled around and saw Hama standing in the doorway. She stepped in towards them and Sokka handed over the box with a look of shame. Hama reached in and grasped whatever was inside.

It was a pretty anti-climactic let down when all that was revealed to be inside was a blue comb.

"An old come?" whined Sokka.

"It's my greatest treasure. It's the last thing I own from growing up in the Southern Water Tribe."

"Wow," mumbled Dante, "what a twist."

"You're from the Southern Water Tribe?" asked Katara in awe.

She nodded. "Just like you."

"How did you know?"

"I heard you talking around your campfire."

"So why didn't you tell us?" demanded Sokka.

"I wanted to surprise you. I bought all this good today so I could fix you a big water tribe dinner. Of course I can't get all the ingredients here, but ocean kumquats are a lot like sea prunes if you stew them long enough."

No one noticed Aang's look of distaste. "Great," he muttered.

"I knew I felt a bond with you right away!" exclaimed Katara happily.

"You feel a bond with _everyone_ right away," murmured Dante.

"And I knew she was keeping a secret!" added Sokka.

Dante smacked the back of his head. "_We_ knew she was keeping a secret; anyway, sorry about the sneakin' around."

She smiled. "Apology accepted, now let's get cooking!"

* * *

By dinner time, Dante was starving, but looking at the spread of "food" on the table, he decided it would be better to go to bed hungry than die in the middle the night from explosive diarrhea.

"I'd steer clear of the sea prunes guys," whispered Aang.

"I thought they were ocean kumquats," replied Toph.

"Close enough."

"Who wants five flavored soup!" offered Hama.

Curiosity got the better of Dante's stomach, and he raised his hand along with the rest of them. Even he was surprised when Hama delivered her soup via waterbending.

"You're a waterbender! I've never met another waterbender from our tribe!"

Hama's expression changed to one of sorrow and remembrance. "That's because the Fire Nation wiped them all out. I was the last one."

"So how did you end up all the way out here?"

"I was stolen from my home. It was over sixty years ago when the raids started. They came again and again, each time taking more of our waterbenders captive. We did our best to hold them off, but our numbers dwindled as the raids continued. Finally I to was capture; I was led a way in chains, the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe."

Katara moved and put an arm around Hama's shoulder, trying to comfort her.

"They put us in terrible prisons in the Fire Nation. I was the only one who managed to escape."

"How did you get away, and why did you stay in the Fire Nation?" asked Sokka.

Hama shook her head. I'm sorry; it's too painful to talk about anymore."

"We completely understand; we lost our mother in a raid."

"Oh you poor things," she said, patting Katara's hand.

"I can't tell you what it means to meet you, it's an honor; you're a hero."

"I never thought I'd meet another waterbender from our tribe. I'd like to teach you what I know so you can carry on the southern tradition when I'm gone."

Katara shot up excitedly. "Yes, yes, I'd love to. To learn about my heritage…it would mean everything to me."

* * *

Katara had gone off with Hama to learn a little waterbending, so while they were out, Aang and the rest of the group went out to see if there were any environmental disturbances so they could rule out spiritual activity. As they expected, there wasn't a thing wrong. In fact, it was some of the healthiest wildlife they'd seen in a while.

"This has gotta be the nicest setting in the Fire Nation, I can't see anything that would make the spirits mad around here," said Aang.

"Maybe the moon spirit just turned mean," suggested Toph.

Before Dante could all his two cents worth into the conversation, Sokka whipped around with red in his face.

"The moon spirit is a gentle loving lady! She rules the sky with compassion…and…lunar goodness."

Normally Dante would ask what that was about, but he somehow got the vibe this was something from before he'd joined the group, and was better left alone. He quickly forgot about it anyway, as a traveler passed by. Aang approached him and questioned him about the spirit abducing people.

"Only one man ever saw it and lived, and that's old man Ding," he replied.

Toph grabbed his sleeve. "Where does old man Ding live?"

* * *

That night, the four of them went out into town to find old man Ding. He was outside his home, lining up a hammer to a nail when they finally located him.

"Old man Ding?" asked Aang suddenly, causing the elderly man to smash his thumb with the hammer.

"Ah demblamit; what, can't ya see I'm busy? Got a full moon risin', and why does everyone call me that, I'm not that old?"

He bent down to pick up the wooden plank he'd dropped, but couldn't muster the strength to pick it up.

"Eh, well I'm young at heart."

Aang moved to help him lift it, and hefted it up against his window.

"Not old enough to get snatched up by some moon monster at least!"

Sokka picked up the hammer. "We wanted to ask you about that."

"Did you get a good look at the spirit who took you?" asked Aang.

"Didn't see no spirit, just felt something come over me, like I was…possessed, forced me to start walking towards the mountain! I tried to fight it, but I couldn't control my own limbs! It just about had me into a cave up there, and I looked up at the moon for what I thought would be my last glimpse of light. But then the sun started to rise, and I got control of myself again, and I just high-tailed it away from that mountain as quick as I could!"

"Why would a spirit want to take people to a mountain?" asked Sokka.

"Oh no; I did hear screaming under the mountain, the missing villagers must still be there!" exclaimed Toph.

"Somehow, I just knew this was gonna get weird. This is almost getting a little too predictable," muttered Dante.

* * *

The four of them had been running up the mountain with Toph as their guide. She could feel where the prisoners were being kept, and eventually that trail led them to a small cave in the middle of no where on the mountainside. They came to a stop and looked down into the black abyss.

"This is the place," Toph announced.

"I can't see anything down there," commented Sokka.

Toph grabbed his arm, "That's why you have me, let's go."

With that, they all jumped right in. It was dark, but Toph could lead Aang and Sokka on just fine. Dante was fine to begin with, he had always been able to see fine in the dark, he guessed it was another perk of having Sparda for a father. He continued on guide-less.

They continued on until they saw a light. That light was actually two torches that illuminated a thick metal door. Toph easily smashed her way through it, and the four rushed forward, Sokka holding one of the torches. Turning a corner, they came upon what they had been looking for.

There were dozens of people chained to the walls and rocky pillars of the cave. They ranged from all ages and genders, from old women, to young boys, and vice versa.

"We're saved!" exclaimed one of the men.

"I didn't know that spirits made prisons like this; who brought you all here?" asked Aang.

Toph and Dante moved to free the prisoners of their shackles; Toph with her metal bracelet, and Dante with just his bare hands and sheer strength.

"It was no spirit," spat a middle aged woman.

"It was a witch!" added an old man.

Sokka stepped forward intrigued. "A witch, what to do you mean?"

"She seems normal," said the same middle aged woman, "but she controls people, like some dark puppet master."

"Hama!" the water tribe warrior concluded.

"Yes that's right, the inn keeper!" confirmed another prisoner.

"I knew there was something creepy about her!" Sokka shouted.

"We have to stop Hama!" exclaimed Aang.

Toph turned to the both of them. "Dante and I'll help everyone out of here, you go!"

Without any further coaxing, they were off. The light left them, but Dante and Toph could still easily complete their work. The two formed a slapped together system where Dante would rip the cuffs straight out of the wall, and the prisoners would form a line to Toph where she would unlock the shackles.

As the demon hunter was freeing the last of the prisoners the farthest back regions of the cavern, he spotted something. It seemed to hold some sort of luminance, and after everyone was free, he approached it slowly. It was caked with dirt and grime, and there were several boulders in front of it, but he easily shoved them aside to get a closer look.

From what he could tell it was a door. It wasn't made of stone or metal, but it was definitely hard whatever it was. He put his hand to it and felt…something. It was faint, but something was down there, something that wasn't supposed to be. He was half tempted to try and open it, but he was pulled away from his trance-like state when he heard Toph call his name.

"Dante, come on, we're going! The guys need our held!"

He chanced one last look at the door. "Right, I'm coming!"

* * *

The run back down the mountain was a slow thing. A lot of the prisoners were tired, weak, and hungry. Toph decided that Aang and Sokka would probably need help, so she told Dante to go ahead of her. He was much faster than the average man, and ran through forest with reckless abandon.

He heard a commotion up ahead, and when he arrived, he saw Hama waving her arms around madly as Sokka was attacking Katara with his sword. She was just barely dodging and staying out of his range, so Dante thought it as good a time as any to jump in and help. He managed to leap into the battle right between Katara and Sokka.

With a swift motion, he dodged a forced thrust from Sokka, kneed his wrist, thereby knocking his sword out of his hand, and then whipped out Cerberus. He wrapped one of the prongs around Sokka's body, bending his arms, and then extended a second prong into a tree and letting it retract, binding the warrior in place against its trunk.

Once Cerberus was gone from his hands, he extended his arm, and through the wilderness Rebellion came spinning out of the treeline and into his hand. By this time, Katara had frozen Aang to a tree, and the two faced Hama.

"Well, well, I guess even sweet old ladies like you can be psychopathic criminals," Dante joked as he pointed the tip of his blade towards the waterbender.

"You're friend is quite annoying Katara, perhaps I should quiet him up."

Dante's body suddenly became stiff. He guessed this was Hama's puppet master like ability. For some reason he was able to resist it slightly, he still had some control of his limbs, though they were much harder to move now. Still, Hama seemed to focus most of her attention on his right arm, and he could do nothing to combat it. She forced him to turn Rebellion around and tried to ram it into his chest.

With her most of her focus on his right arm, he was able to throw left arm at the last second and divert the attack slightly to the left. His own blade sliced right through his shoulder, cutting through the bone. Rebellion was a devil blade like Yamato, it would still heal, but not instantaneously like normal wounds. It would take him a few seconds, possibly even a few minutes before it sealed up.

"You're quick, but I can still take you're arm!" she shrieked.

That was as far as she got. Dante finally felt his body fall back under his command, and Hama instead went stiff. He glanced over his unwounded shoulder at Katara, who seemed to be able to do whatever it was that Hama had been doing. The younger waterbender forced the elder down slowly, and held her there.

At that moment, Toph showed up with the prisoners. It didn't take long for them to take Hama into custody after that. As she was being locked up, Dante pulled Rebellion out of his shoulder. He inspected the wound, and as expected, it healing, but at a barely visible pace. It would take a few minutes to close up.

"You're going to be locked away forever," growled one of the former prisoners as they took her away.

"My work is done," she mumbled, "congratulations Katara, you're a blood bender."

Katara began to sob, and at any other moment he'd have been with everyone else trying to calm her down, but the door he saw within Hama's cave rose a question he'd been dying to ask.

"Hold on a sec!" he called to all the former prisoners and Hama.

They all stopped and looked at him.

"I just have one thing to ask…are any of you a delivery boy?"

After a moment he got no answers.

"Hama, you remember the conversation between the merchant earlier, the one about a delivery boy going missing? Did you abduct him?"

"…no, I didn't."

And there it was. That was all the excuse he needed to go back and check what was on the other side of that door.

"That's all, thanks."

They nodded, and continued taking Hama away. With that, he returned back to the rest of the group. Katara had settled down some, and was down to the occasional sob, and Sokka had managed to wiggle out of Cerberus to join Aang and Toph.

"I'll be back soon, I've gotta handle somethin'," said Dante, throwing Rebellion over his good shoulder.

"Where are you going?" asked Aang.

"I'm startin' to think my theory about a Devil Arm wasn't too far off. There's somethin' I've gotta check out, I saw it back in the cave."

Katara sniffled loudly and stood up. "Let's go then."

Dante shook his head. "No, you've had enough excitement for one day. You go back and get some sleep; I'll be back before ya know it."

They all nodded and Dante headed back up the mountain.

"Dante!" called Katara.

He stopped and half turned around.

"I'm…sorry, if I'd been faster you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

He scoffed and waved it off. "Don't worry 'bout it, it's already healing. By the time I get back up the mountain it should be all closed up. Now go to bed."

With that, Dante returned to his trek. The forest around the mountain was dark, but the moon was all the guiding light he needed and then some. He took his time getting to the cave; he didn't want to waste energy. He was expecting someone at least as tough as Cerberus, which means he would probably need his Devil Trigger as Sokka had dubbed it. It was about the only good name for anything he'd ever come up with, and Dante thought it too much of a momentous occasion to just throw away the name, plus it had a nice ring to it.

It wasn't long until he was walking back into the abysmal darkness of the mountains cave. After a few seconds his eyes adjusted to the further lack of light and he was able to navigate safely again. The cave wasn't very big, and he found the smashed in door pretty quickly. Now that the prisoners had been evacuated, it was eerily silent; only the occasional crackles of what he assumed were small animals against stray rocks and pebbles filled the air with audible sound.

He passed the cracked stone pillars where he head ripped the cuffs straight out, and proceeded to the back of the room. The door was still very hard to see even for him, it was so utterly covered with crusted over dirt and stone that he doubted anyone but he and Toph would be able to find it at all, and even he found it by sheer luck.

He moved closer to inspect it. There wasn't any clearly visible way to open it, no knob or handle that he could see. With no other options that he could think of, Dante decided that he'd have to blow the door down.

He took a few steps back and whipped out Rebellion. Pulling it back, he charged up a Drive attack, letting the energy flow freely through the demonic steel. When it reached a suitable charge, he swung the broadsword in a wide arc. The Drive slammed into the door, exploding on impact.

When the dust and stone that was kicked up from the attack cleared up, the door was no more, and his path was clear. Dante returned Rebellion to its resting place on his back until he needed it again, which he was sure he would. He stepped through the rubble of the door and looked out on what was on the other side.

What was presented to him was a spiraling pathway hugging the walls of the new chamber, reaching so far down it was reasonable to assume it drove itself down to the core of the earth. Dante was sure whatever he was looking for was down there, he was sensing an energy like Cerberus, but it was slightly different. It was a bit stronger for one, but it also felt a little more…sensual? He shook the thought out of his head and started down the path, he'd figure it out when he got there.

The path just kept winding downward, further and further into the earth. After ten minutes of walking he was beginning to wonder if this thing even had an ending. Thankfully, his answer was given to him not long after that. He was so used to leveling himself out at a downward slope that when he finally hit flat ground, he wasn't prepared and almost fell right on his face.

Looking up, there was only one direction he could take, and he followed the cavern further into the mountains depths. It was a short corridor, and at the end he was presented with a narrow stone bridge of sorts. It didn't look entirely stable, and below him was another large sea of blackness. He took a few test steps, and when he was satisfied, he walked its length to the other side.

There stood a door with a golden depiction of a woman. He stepped to take a closer look, but out of no where it just opened for him. It was confusing, but it was just another thing that Dante would just figure out later after his job was done.

On the other side of the door, he was pleased to find that it wasn't another black abyss and narrow passage way. Instead it was a wide chamber, almost like a small theater. To the left and right of him were sets of stone pillars, and both on them and in between them were masses of lit candles that served as the only illumination this deep in the mountain.

At first it seemed like the room was empty, but he could still feel energy pouring out of the place. He was about to head back and double check he hadn't missed anything when a number of bats flew past him. The all congregated directly in front of him, melding together to form…something.

Out from the mass of blotchy dark emerged a woman. Pale skin and the reddest hair Dante had ever seen, it hung in just the right place so to not leave her completely exposed. She giggled playfully as she came into full being, and her eyes immediately fell on Dante.

"Welcome sir, allow me to introduce myself," she purred, "I am Nevan."

Dante grinned and took a few steps forward. She approached as well, to the point where they were nearly chest to chest.

"I haven't had a visitor in so long," she said seductively, trailing her hands around his shoulders as she circled him.

"Gets kinda lonely down here I imagine."

Nevan had come full circle and was in front of him again. "You have no idea."

"I take it that's why you're abducting people in the middle of the night, huh?"

She grinned slyly. "Smart boy, just like your father."

Dante's eyes narrowed, causing the Nevan to giggle further. "Oh don't be so surprised, sugar. Every demon knows Sparda's power, and yours is just too similar to ignore."

She approached him, stopping a few mere inches apart from him. She reached up and lightly brushed his cheek with her fingers.

"It has that same…manly…quality to it," she uttered to him in a whisper.

"I'm still wonderin' how you managed to abduct people. As far as my pops books were concerned, you're glued down here until somebody releases you."

She smirked and backed away slightly. "I may be contained here, but my sweet pets roam free in the night, and they bring me back their catch every full moon."

Again, she moved closer to him, swaying to his right and leaning in on his shoulder.

"But enough talk, I've been waiting millennia to finally have some company, let's not spoil the happy occasion."

A grin returned to Dante's face. "You're right; in fact, we should have a party."

Nevan grinned and drifted a distance away. Dante walked after her, freeing Rebellion as he walked.

"Well then, come on sugar."

Two more steps and he broke into a run. He didn't know what kind of abilities or attacks this Nevan used, but the only way he was going to find out was if he attacked. She made no effort to evade him as he swung Rebellion. He was about to make contact when his blade impacted something at the attack was averted. Dante jumped back, not wanting her to capitalize on his opening. He looked over to his right once he had escaped her range, and there laid three downed bats that were slowly fading away.

"My pets will gladly defend me, I wish you luck landing a blow," she purred.

Dante scoffed and twirled Rebellion in his hand a little. "Well, that all ya got?"

"Hardly, sugar."

Nevan extended her hand forward and four of her bats broke away from the rest and glowed with a purple demonic aura, lightning crackling all around him. Dante leaped and dodge-rolled to the side, and the bats crashed into the, exploding. Once he rolled back to his feet, he charged Nevan again, this time was rough plan.

They were both near the left side of the theater as Dante closed in. Nevan fired off three more electrified bats. Dante responded by throwing Rebellion, slicing through the bats easily, and causing Nevan to sidestep the blade, turning her back to the pillars around the perimeter of the theater. Just like Dante wanted.

With her attention momentarily off him, he leaped and then Air-Hiked up, planted his foot on the pillar right behind Nevan, and whipped out Cerberus. He extended on of the prongs and was able to wrap it around the demons neck as he pushed off from the pillar and landed on the steps of the strange stage that resided at the front of the room.

He tugged the pronged weapon and lifted Nevan off the ground, whirling her around until he reached just about full circle, then released the weapons grip on her, sending her flying high towards the wall on the opposite side of the room, over the door he entered in. Just as he had let her go, he had called back Rebellion from the wall it had embedded itself in. He let go of Cerberus, grabbed Rebellion, and flung it after Nevan, impaling her through the stomach just as she hit the wall. She slumped over against the sword, pinned against the stone.

He walked over towards her, calling back Rebellion and letting Nevan hit the floor with a thud. She slowly staggered to her hands and knees, clutching the wound in her stomach.

"Geez, that was easy, kinda disappointing actually. I was expecting you to be a lot stronger. Cerberus at least wounded me a little."

Nevan gasped for air. "Just…like your father."

"Yeah, yeah, just like my pops, whatever."

"Incredibly…gullible," she wheezed.

Dante was about to ask why when Nevan suddenly shot up, two black blurs emitting from her hands. They bit into Dante's flesh like blades and he felt blood spray out as he stumbled backwards and the wounds sealed shut, stemming the flow of blood. He scrambled back to his feet again, only to find Nevan right in front of him. She spread her arms wide and latched onto him, wrapping herself tightly around him.

He struggled to get loose, but she leaned in and he suddenly felt a little lightheaded as Nevan lightly grazed her lips against his. The lightheaded sensation wasn't because he was enjoying it…okay, he was a little, but mostly it was because his soul was being sucked out.

His vision began to blur, colors and sights all melding into one mish-mesh. Random images began to pop into his head; he supposed his life was flashing before his eyes, if you believe in that sort of thing. He saw a few of his childhood, some with his training with Piandao, and more recent ones of his adventures with Aang and the rest of the gang. Despite how messed up his life had been, those three series of images had depicted three of the happiest times of his life, and he wasn't about to let them end here.

He reached deep down and pulled on the core of his demonic energy. He felt it rise to the surface and flow freely through his veins, clearing his head and returning his senses. A burst of power erupted from him, blowing Nevan off him and back into the wall again.

He stood in his red, horned form, clenching Rebellion tightly as Nevan worked her way out of the rubble.

"Oh, now that's a pleasant surprise," Nevan said with a grin.

Dante did as close to a smirk as he could in his current form. _"Try and take me now."_

"My pleasure, sugar."

Dante felt a tingle against his ankles and looked down. The ground began to glow and generate electricity. He didn't need a university education to know that he didn't want to be on the ground much longer, so he jumped up into the air and stayed afloat thanks to the wings granted to him by his Devil Trigger. As he predicted, the ground became a storm of electricity.

As it began to fade, Dante swooped down at Nevan and slammed Rebellion downward at her. The Succubus was able to twirl to the side just in time to avoid the strike. She then retaliated with a spinning attack with the same black blades as last time. Dante rolled under it easily, and swung Rebellion again, this time biting into the flesh of Nevan's back.

She stumbled forward, fumbling to turn around as she retreated. Dante went after her, and she responded by sending more bats at him. With his increased speed, he was able to dodge the bats easily. He slashed with Rebellion again when he got close enough. Nevan was nearly out of bats, and didn't want to sacrifice any just to block the attack, to she too the hands on route, literally. She brought out her black blades and blocked Rebellion, and threw Dante back.

The half demon dug his feet into the ground, and stopped himself from losing too much ground. As he began to advance on her again, Nevan used the last of her bats in pairs to send high speed electric currents at Dante. The first was a horizontal current, which he easily jumped over, the second was also horizontal but slightly higher, so he ducked into a roll the second he landed. The last one was much larger; a five current vertical wall of electricity.

Dante brought Rebellion back and charged up the steel with demonic energy. In his Devil Trigger state he could charge Drive attacks twice as fast, and in just a moment he had all the energy he needed. He flung the sword in a wide arc and the Drive collided with Nevan's electricity. The two opposing forces exploded outward, temporarily blinding both opponents.

Dante shot forward, using a Stinger attack. He came flying out of the debris, and with a finally defenseless Nevan, he rammed Rebellion through her chest. The blade slid through her body until she hit the guard just above the hilt. He kept running her through until the blade pierced through the rock of a pillar some distance behind her, permanently pinning her to the wall. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice; he wasn't pulling Rebellion back out, and he'd made sure it was practically unmovable physically. Nevan gasped for breath, the broadsword preventing her from repairing her wound.

Dante reverted back to his normal form, shaking his head a little. Devil Trigger was becoming less and less tiring every time he used it. Now he was just subject to a little dizziness when he transferred back out of it.

_"_You're done," said Dante, "just gimmie your soul so I can go to bed."

Nevan still managed to giggle. "Your father…was a handsome devil…but your no slouch…yourself."

With that, she disappeared in a purple aura, and her soul floated into his hand. As her soul took form again, he looked down on a violet colored instrument. It looked like a very spiky lute. Dante reached down to where to strings would be, and plucked. Instead of strings, there were electric currents, and the note was much louder than he'd heard an instrument like this produce before.

He smirked and brought his hand down more violently this time, striking all the "strings". Not only did he produce an even louder noise than before, but bats like the ones Nevan used sprung up from the ground and surrounded him. At first his thought was to attack, but they seemed to be ignoring him and instead obeying him.

When the note faded, so did the bats, and Dante set the tip of the instrument down against the ground. As he did, the lute-like instrument folded out, transforming into something similar to a scythe.

"This thing just gets better and better!" Dante chuckled.

He picked it up again and whipped it to the side, folding it back up again. He called back Rebellion, and put both weapons on his back in a crossed position, while Cerberus was hooked to his belt. He was building something of an arsenal.

With one final sigh, he began his long walk back to town.

* * *

It was the next morning, and the group was busy loading up Appa. Dante still hadn't come back after he had left the previous night, and they were starting to get worried.

"I knew I should have gone with him."

"He chose to go on his own Katara," said Aang, "Besides, I'm sure he's okay, he's Dante."

Sokka threw a sack atop the saddle. "Yeah, remember, the guy who fought the crazy three headed dog?"

"Don't forget his scary older brother," added Aang.

"And Combustion Man!" called Toph as she left to get the last of their things.

Sokka nodded. "Right, Combustion Man to! I'm sure whatever Dante ran into, it wasn't nearly as bad as all the other stuff we've had to deal with."

Just then, they heard a bang come from the doors of the barn. They all looked over and saw a dirt smeared and tattered Dante. He walked awkwardly into the barn, rubbing his head.

"Dante, you're alright!" said Katara happily. She rushed up to him and was about to welcome him back, when she caught a whiff of him. He stunk to all high heavens, so much so that Katara reeled back and had to plug her nose.

Sokka and Aang were curious and jumped down, approaching Dante as well. When they got in proximity of him, they also smelled him and instantly mirrored Katara's actions.

"Woo! Dante, what crawled on you and died?" asked Sokka.

"Well," he began, "I was right when I suspected a Devil Arm in the mountain. I beat her though, and got a cool new weapon. Anyway, I was pretty wiped out after the fight, so I just slept in the woods. I got a little lost coming back; else I probably would have gotten here sooner."

As he finished explaining, Toph came back with their last supply sack. She could tell everyone was plugging their noses and was confused as to why.

"What's your guys' problem?"

"You mean you don't smell that?" asked Katara.

She shook her head. "No, why?"

Dante chuckled and passed them all by. "Well anyway, I'm pretty much sick of this place, so let's hit the skies, eh? We've got a party to get to ya know, and I'm never late for a party."

They all nodded and climbed aboard Appa. In a matter of moments, they were soaring through the skies.

"Dante," said Katara.

"Yeah?"

"The second we land, you're taking a bath."

**

* * *

**

**Another Devil Arm bites the dust. Yeah, they're sorta showing up out of order, but it just makes things easier for me, so in case you feel the compulsive need to complain...don't.**

**That aside, I was never a fan of this episode. The bloodbending thing seemed forced, and it was never even mentioned again after that episode if I remember correctly. I suppose it makes sense, Katara would be just short of unbeatable if she were to use that technique on anyone of importance outside a filler episode. Seriously, with the kind of power Katara would be packin' on a full moon, she could kick everyone's ass! It wouldn't be Avatar: the last airbender, it'd be Katara: the last bloodbending pyscho-bitch.**

**Now, before I start ranting any more than I already am, I'll let you go on the condition that you drop a review.**


	13. Chapter 13: A Special Brand of Crazy

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 13

**A Special Brand of Crazy**

Hey guys, I have returned! Now I've got some good news and bad news. Bad new is, this chapter is seriously fucking boring, and extremely fucking short. I mean shortest and most boring in the story! In fact, you could probably just skip over this chapter if you really wanted to. Absolutely nothing of importance goes on here.

Seriously.

On the other hand, to counterbalance this shit-tastic chapter, I double updated. Yes, you heard right, chapter fourteen, the first part of the invasion is up along with this thing. So if you want, just hit the next button. If you've got time to kill however, go ahead and read this if you want, but don't say I didn't warn you.

* * *

It was just starting to fall into night when the gang finally made it to the destination they'd been working so hard to get to. After two weeks of blowing up factories, fighting demons, capturing crazy old ladies, being chased by Combustion Man, and throwing a dance party, everyone was pooped. They pushed through a thicket of bushes, and there they saw their campsite.

A relatively empty and flat plain overlooking a steep cliff that fed out into the vast ocean surrounding the rest of the Fire Nation. There were odd sheep…things, lounging about and sleeping the night away, and everything seemed relatively peaceful.

Sokka glanced down at the map to double check their location. "This is it, the official rendezvous point for the invasion force."

"How did you pick this place?" asked Toph.

"Before we split up we found this island on a map. It's uninhabited and the harbor surrounded by rocks seemed like the perfect secluded place."

"Nice choice Sokka, and we're here four days ahead of schedule," complimented Katara.

"Yup," sighed Dante as he laid down on his bedroll, "savin' lives and goofin' off, and we still made it on time. How awesome are we?"

All of a sudden Aang shot up from where he was laying. "Wait, four days? The invasion's in four days?"

Sokka yawned, unconcerned. "Whatever, that's like…four days from now. Let's just calm down and-" His sentence was cut off by his snoring.

"Sokka's got the right idea Aang. We're here, we're ready; the best thing we can do now is get plenty of rest."

Dante yawned as well. "Yeah kid, don't stress out so much. Look at it this way, in four days, you'll have your shoe up the Fire Lords ass, I'll have my amulet back, and everythin' will be back to normal."

Aang still seemed unsure. "I guess."

With that, he laid down to sleep.

* * *

Dante was woken up in the middle of the night. He wasn't sure what, but he heard something and his brain jolted him awake. He massaged his eyes and glanced around. Everyone was in bed except Aang. He sighed; figuring the noise he was hearing must have been him.

Sure enough, not far off was Aang kicking away at a bush vigorously. He sighed again and sat down next to Momo, who was laying down a distance away. The small Lemur perked up at his presence and hopped up his shoulder, perching himself on top of Dante's head.

"So, you got a grudge against that bush or somethin' kid?"

Aang stopped his kicking momentarily and glanced back at Dante.

"Nope, just training," he said, going back to his kicks.

"You might wanna head back to bed kid, wouldn't want ya worn out for the party and all."

Aang shook his head and increased speed. "Sorry, can't do that, I need to train more. You can go back to sleep Dante, I go work to do."

It looked like he wasn't going to listen. Dante wordlessly got up and approached Aang from behind.

"Sorry 'bout this kid."

"Huh?"

Aang fell to the ground as Dante delivered a hard and accurate chop, knocking him out cold.

"Go to bed," he said, hoisting him up and carrying him back to his bedroll.

* * *

The very next morning, everyone awoke to a loud pounding noise. The rest of the group couldn't identify the noise, but Dante had a pretty good guess.

'_Oh don't tell me," _he groaned mentally.

He rolled over and sat up, only to find Aang up, and training even more intensely than he had been last night. He and Katara both got up and approached him.

"Hey," said Katara, unsure, "how long have you been up?"

"Three or four hours," he said urgently as he smacked away at the tree.

Dante wanted to smack him upside the head. "Probably would have been more if I hadn't knocked him out last night. He must really be freaked out if he woke up so soon, I hit him pretty hard."

"You know, there is such a thing as overtraining," said Katara.

Just then, Aang toppled over, every branch of the tree falling with him. He popped back up quickly in a fighting stance.

"You don't get it do you? My form is lousy, I'm sloppy, and I still don't even know any Firebending! Not even the basics!"

His argument probably would have carried more weight if he hadn't said it with that twitch in his eye that made him seem like a crazy person.

"That's okay Aang, the eclipse will block off Firebending anyway, you don't need to know any. Plus, it's a stupid element."

"Huh, for once he makes sense," shrugged Dante.

"O-okay, but I still have to work on everything else. I better spend the whole day training," Aang said, randomly chopping at the air.

With that, he hopped on an air-scooter, and zoomed off.

* * *

True to his word, Aang did indeed train all day. It was night again, and everyone was settling in for some sleep. Aang came trudging back to the campsite looking utterly exhausted. That's good, Dante thought. If he was worn out, he'd fall asleep no matter how nervous he was.

The young monk yawned and fell onto the ground. "Good night Katara, good night Sokka, good night Toph, good night Dante, good night Appa, good night Momo, good night Appa and Mo-"

"Go to sleep already!" interrupted Toph.

After that was silence.

Not even a few minutes after he went, Aang had been talking in his sleep. Then after a while, shot up from the ground and left after waking. Dante had still been awake at that point, just looking up at the sky and relaxing as the avatar abandoned sleep for more crazed training.

He learned from last time that simply knocking him out wasn't going to cut it; he'd have to be convinced to go back to bed. He sighed and stood up, walking over to Katara. He shook the younger girl's shoulder lightly. She groaned a little before rolling over to face him while rubbing one of her eyes.

"What is it Dante?"

"Aang's back at it again, I figured we should both try and get him to calm his little ass down."

She offered no audible response, but nodded and stood up with him. Not far away, they found said avatar circling a sleeping bunch of sheep in a fighting stance.

"Aang," said Katara quietly, "it's the middle of the night, you need to go back to sleep."

"But I forgot my pants and my math tests," he said with a tone of seriousness, despite the absurdity of his words.

"What the hell are you smokin' kid?" Dante mumbled to himself.

Katara grabbed Aang's shoulder as he made another round. "Aang…sleep, please, for me."

After a moment he rubbed his eye and nodded.

* * *

The next morning was a quiet one.

"Sokka get up I need to know what day it is!" shouted Aang.

The keyword being: _was._

"What, who's talking?" cried Sokka, scrambling up with sword in hand, only to smack face first into a rock.

The commotion woke everyone up, all of them annoyed. "Relax," growled Toph, "it's still two days before the invasion."

Aang pulled at Sokka's leg. "Sokka, you've gotta get up and drill your rock-climbing exercises!"

"What?"

"In one of my dreams you were running from Fire Nation soldiers, trying to climb this cliff, but you were too slow and they got you!"

Sokka stood up quickly; ready to defend his so called weakness. "But that was just a dream, I'm a great climber."

"Then climb that cliff, climb it fast," Aang demanded.

Sokka grumbled as he moved to climb the cliff. Dante couldn't catch all of it, but he heard the word 'stupid' a lot. Meanwhile Toph took a swig of he waterskin when Aang whirled around.

"Don't drink that!" he cried.

She immediately spit it out. "Why, is it poisoned?"

"In my dream, we were right in the middle of the invasion, and you had to stop to use the bathroom! We died because of you tiny bladder! And you need to start wearing your hair up, in my dream you got your hair caught in a-"

Katara gripped his shoulder. "Aang! I know you're just trying to help, but you really need to get a grip. You're unraveling."

Aang took a deep breath. "You're right, I'm losing my mind."

* * *

An hour later and Aang was still freaking out.

"It's like every time I think about how stressed I am, it makes me more stressed. I'm like a big growing snowball of nerves!"

"Of course you are, you've gotta fight the Fire Lord, the baddest man on the planet, and you better win or we're all done for," explained Sokka.

The water tribe warrior suddenly felt a hand hit the back of his head. He turned his head and glared at Dante.

"Quit helping Sokka, you're making things worse."

"What, it's true. It's the deal, he knows it."

Katara moved to calm him down. "You know what; I've got just the thing. Get ready to be de-stressified."

**

* * *

Several failed relaxation attempts later…**

It was now the night again, and Aang was just as worked up as ever. He sat with his knees to his chest, staring into space.

"Thanks for everything guys," he said blankly.

"So do you feel less stressed, ready for a good nights sleep?" asked Katara.

He still looked unsure. "Uh…I kinda think I sorta might slightly feel a little better…maybe."

"Then our work here is done," said Sokka as he stretched and laid down to bed. Everyone else followed suit, but Dante was sure none of the relaxation treatments worked, he could just see it in Aang's eyes. He was still terrified.

He hoped he was wrong, but he knew his luck was always terrible.

Sure enough, Aang woke up in the middle of the night for the third night in a row. Unlike the last two times however, he was loud enough to wake up everyone instead of just being audible to Dante's sensitive hearing. His scream sent everyone out of their dreams and screamed with him. Even Dante himself jolted forward with a momentary cry of surprise.

"What happened Aang?" asked Katara as they all crowded around him.

Aang was on his hands and knees. "It's the nightmares; they just get worse and worse."

"Looks like it's time for another therapy session!" exclaimed Sokka, pulling out his Wang Fire beard.

"No, that won't help, nothing helps! There's only one thing that I can do, I'm gonna stay awake straight through to the invasion!"

Dante sighed and shoved his face into his palm. The kid was falling apart at the seams.

* * *

Despite the constant commotion, morning came quickly and everyone tried to go through their normal routines. Katara was doing some morning stretches and Dante was doing some light sparring with Sokka when Aang came wandering around, acting like a zombie.

"Invasion…all aboard to the invasion."

Dante dodged one of Sokka's thrusts threw him off balance, sending him tumbling back. Meanwhile, Dante walked over to Katara, glanced at Aang and shook his head. "Jeez, at this point Vergil's livelier than him. If you can't even talk him outta this, he really must be a mess in the head."

"Well, I'm not ready to give up just yet."

He glanced up from his new weapon as Katara approached Aang to try and talk some sense into him, briefly fending off a sneak attack from Sokka before returning his attention back to the two younger teens.

Dante wanted to help out, but he couldn't really think of much to do at this point. Katara was usually the one to get him to see reason, so if she couldn't even crack through his hard head, he doubted he'd be much help.

He was pulled out of his thoughts though, when Sokka came charging at him again. Dante sighed and grabbed the blade of his sword as he swung it, and pushed it back at him, bonking him in the head with the pommel of his own sword.

He could tell it would be a long day.

* * *

Later that day, all was actually calm for a change…until.

"Put em up Fire Lord!"

Aang leaped from the rock he was taking cover behind and began firing continuous blasts of air at a makeshift target dummy of Fire Lord Ozai. All the blasts missed, but one managed to knock over Sokka, much to Dante's amusement.

"Hey, I'm trying to make some armor for Appa so he doesn't have to go into the invasion naked! He's your bison!"

Aang paid no mind, he was lost in his own muddled up little world.

"Ozai's defense is impeccable; I'll have to try a different approach."

Aang leaped into the air again and fired more concentrated air blasts. Again, all of them missed. The young avatar was quickly becoming frustrated, and in his sleep deprived rage, began screaming at the hunk of wood.

"You think you're untouchable, don't you mister Fire Lord!"

At this point, the ruckus was attracting the group's attention. Toph, Sokka, and Katara, plus Appa, upon whose head Dante sat, all walked over and watched as Aang began chirping to Momo.

"Aang…we're all starting to get a little worried about you," said Katara.

"You've been awake too long."

"And you're acting downright weird," added Toph.

"Weird's an understatement, you're actin' batshit crazy kid," said Dante as he hopped off of Appa to the ground.

Aang groaned. "Look, I appreciate what you guys are saying, but the stress and the nightmares, it's too much. Staying awake is the best way for me to deal with it."

Then they all watched as Aang looked nervously between Appa and Momo, and suddenly stood between them like they were fighting.

"Guys…come on."

He rushed up to Sokka and grasped his clothes.

"Sokka, what should we do?"

"About what?" he asked.

"About that!"

He pointed over to Appa and Momo, who were just standing there. Appa grumble a little and Momo was chirping occasionally, but other than that, they were fine.

Once again, Aang was proving that he was literally crumbling one brain cell at a time.

* * *

Night fell quickly. The last night before the invasion, and the last night for Aang to get any sleep at all, and if the day had been even the slightest indication, he needed it. Aforementioned avatar was currently trudging along when a mist suddenly drifted into view, quickly floating past him.

A distance away, he saw something peculiar. It almost looked like a cloud on sitting on a rock. He approached it cautiously, but also with a growing curiosity. He laid his hands on it, inspected it, but was convinced it wasn't really there. He couldn't trust his sense as they were.

"Oh look, another hallucination; an imaginary bed made out of clouds."

"Hey, it's real! We spent hours working on it!" protested Toph, who as well as the rest of the group, seemed to emerge from the mist that clung to the ground.

"We made it for you, a good nights sleep'll probably take the crazy away…we hope," added Sokka.

"There were some casualties," said Dante, looking down at the now bald sheep-like creatures, "but having a good sized arsenal of sharp pointy things made the job that much easier."

Aang climbed off the bed. "You guys keep telling me I need to sleep, but I can't! The invasion's tomorrow!"

"Aang," Katara began, but Aang cut her off.

"No Katara, there's still so much I haven't learned, I don't need sleep, what I need is practice! Quick, hit me!"

Katara sighed. "I'm not going to hit you."

"Though it is tempting," added Dante.

"Listen Aang, you've been training for this since the day we met. I've seen your progress; you're smart, brave, and strong enough."

He looked up at her slightly. "You really think so?"

"We know all do, you can do this. You're ready," said Sokka.

"You're the man Twinkletoes!"

"You're the avatar, and I'm…well…me. We're both damn near the strongest people on the planet. You think those Fire Nation pansies are any match for us?"

Aang rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Wow…thanks guys."

He yawned and rubbed his eyes again. Katara lightly gripped his shoulder and led him to the bed. He laid back and smiled.

"You know, I think I am ready."

**

* * *

You still awake? Damn, you're a trooper. Kudos.  
**


	14. Chapter 14: Follow Your Gut

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 14

**Follow Your Gut**

FUCK YEAH!!! Here we go, invasion time people! I've got a whole bag of goodies for you good little boys and girls, from DMC references, to a whole bunch of shit blowing up! We've got one hell of a ride coming our way, from now and next chapter, so keep your hands and feet within the webpage at all time, don't look down, and clench up your asshole, otherwise you just might SHIT YOUR PANTS!!!

(I'm building this up way too much aren't I?)

* * *

Today was the day. The invasion force, or at least the forces they could gather, would arrive today. Over the last few days Aang had been freaking out over the whole thing, but with a good nights sleep under his belt, they'd hoped he'd mellow out some. Now it was Sokka who was on red alert.

He was currently hunched over a series of maps, reviewing their plans. Katara handed him a cup of tea which she had to force into his hand to get him to drink. Out of no where Aang jumped up from bed, followed slowly by Dante, who had Rebellion over his shoulder, and his Devil Arms secured as well.

"Top of the morning Momo!" said Aang cheerfully.

"Hey there campers, who's pumped up for today!" shouted Dante.

Katara stood up from her seat near her brother. "Sounds like you two slept well."

"Like baby moose-lions! I'm ready to face the Fire Lord!"

Dante shrugged. "I wanted to sleep in a little more, but he kept buggin' me to get outta my bedroll."

"So Aang, what's you plan for taking him on?" asked Toph, "are you gonna get your glow on and hit em with a little avatar state action?"

Now he looked a little down. "I can't; when Azula shot me with lightning, my seventh chakra was locked, cutting off my connection from all the cosmic energy in the universe."

After a moment, Toph replied. "Ya know what I just heard; Blah blah cosmic energy, blah blah something about space."

"It's complicated, I read through a bunch of my dad's library and I still don't understand some of it," commented Dante.

Meanwhile, Katara was looking out over the sea. There was a large cloud of fog rolling in, and it worried her.

"Sokka, you don't the fog will delay the invasion do you?"

Sokka looked up and smiled. "No, that is the invasion!"

Sure enough, out of the fog came a small fleet of Water Tribe ships; Sokka's father and Bato at the fore-front of the formation. Toph and Aang quickly traveled down to the beach below, lifting up rock and stone from beneath the water, creating a makeshift port. The boats docked, and Hakoda was the first one onto the docks.

At this point, Dante, Katara, and Sokka had joined Aang and Toph down at the beach, and the two siblings ran off to greet their father. Meanwhile, Dante watched as the fighters all unloaded from the boats. Most of them were Earth Kingdom rebels and Water Tribe warriors, but there were a few that didn't seem the soldier type.

Katara greeted someone named Haru if he heard right. Aang brought Toph and him along. He guessed this must be a friend of theirs before he or even Toph joined the group.

"Guys, this is Haru. When we met him his town was controlled by the Fire Nation, so he had to hide his Earthbending."

"Katara inspired me and my father to take back our village," he said as an older man approached, presumably his father. He gripped both their shoulders.

"You helped us find out courage Katara, now we're here to help you."

All of a sudden Toph turned ninety degrees and slip into a fighting stance.

"No way, is that…"

Out of no where a huge blubbery man picked up Toph with a goofy smile.

"Hippo happy to see Blind Bandit!"

"You guys here for a rematch?" she spat.

The smaller, but no less formidable man next to them spoke up. "Negatory, the Boulder and the Hippo no longer fight for others entertainment! Now we fight for our Kingdom!"

Toph smirked. "Sweet."

Dante was about to make some smartass comment when he was cut off by an explosion. Everyone's heads turned to the plume of smoke that rose up from the confines of the furthest ship. Out of the ship rolled a boy in a wheelchair, and a man who could easily be mistaken as a mad scientist as well as The Duke and Pipsqueak.

"Was that a new invention?" asked Sokka.

"Yes," replied the man, "but unfortunately the incendiary capabilities of peanut sauce turned out to be a failure."

"You're making peanut sauce bombs?"

"They're destructive," commented Pipsqueak.

"And delicious!" said The Duke.

Sokka decided to turn the conversation back to business. "Were you able to complete the plans I sent you?"

"Yes, and I think the Fire Nation will be quite surprised."

The boy in the wheelchair reached down. "Aang, my dad and I made this for you."

He presented Aang with a staff. It wasn't like his old one, it didn't have that handcrafted look to it, but it did seem much more sturdy and practical. Aang took in his hand, and folded out the wings, which were now blue instead of the old airbender orange.

"A new glider, this is amazing!"

"And as a special feature, I added a snack compartment!"

"Oh…well I'm sure that'll come in handy."

Dante was beginning to lose interest in the conversation until the scientist turned his attention onto him.

"You're Dante if I'm not mistaken, correct?"

Dante raised his eyebrow. "What's it to you old man?"

"Just one moment please."

With that, he rushed back into the confines of the boat. Dante looked to Sokka for an answer, but the Water Tribe warrior just smirked and let him wait in confusion. In a matter of minutes, he was back, carrying two odd looking…things. They each had a handle that curved forward, as well as a trigger placed on the arch of the curve. There was some intricate metal work on the top, some sort of mechanism probably attached to the trigger. Both were made of wood, though one had thin white colored metal adorning its handle and sides, while the other had black colored metal.

"So, what are they exactly?" asked Dante.

"They're old experiments back from when I was forced to develop weapons for the Fire Nation. I call them, 'Pistols'. In a nutshell, when the trigger is pulled, this piece of flint will shower sparks onto a fine and very combustible powder, which will in turn cause a small explosion, propelling a metallic ball forward a very high speeds, capable of easily piercing armor and human flesh."

Dante picked one up. They were light compared to his other weapons, and they looked pretty cool, but if he developed them for the Fire Nation, why hadn't they been using them. It sounded like a pretty deadly weapon.

"What's wrong with them? I figure the Fire Nation would be jumping all over these things."

The scientist rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, you see the problem is once the ball is fired, it takes quite some time to reload the necessary ammunition. Much too long to be effective against an opponent who can bend; I had originally scrapped the project. However, when Sokka told me you know a little something about things of the occult nature, I figured I had nothing to lose by having you at least look at them. If you can find some sort of…magic, or something to solve that problem, then you can keep them."

Dante smirked, looking over the pistol again. He was pretty sure there was some sort of seal he could place on the weapon to solve the reloading problem.

"Alright, I should be able to fix it before the invasion. Then I'll give these puppies a test run on the Fire Nation."

* * *

About an hour passed as people get unloaded and made sure everyone was there. Then the briefing was set up. The Water Tribe warriors and the rest of the invasion force sat patiently as Sokka clutched his scrolls and maps for dear life.

"Don't worry, you'll do great," reassured Hakoda.

He took a deep breath and stepped up to the stage.

"Good morning everyone!"

At first he started off okay, but as soon as that sentence left his lips, he tripped over his own feet and hit the floor. He scrambled back up and held onto his scrolls.

"Um…so, as you know, today we're invading the Fire Nation! I mean, I know you know that, because otherwise why would you be here?"

He was laughing nervously, and dropped all his maps. He picked them back up and posted them to the wooden display board.

"Not the Fire Lords palace is here, uh no, uh wait, uh wait, uh wait, its here!" he said after flipping through about four wrong maps.

"And there's an eclipse today, and Aang's gonna fight the Fire Lord, and the Firebenders won't have any fire to use so, that's good for us and…um…I'm sorry, let me start at the beginning."

For a moment he was silent and tried to regain his composure. Dante; and everyone in the group really, had a mind to get him off the stage and stop him from making himself into a bigger idiot than normal. Suddenly Sokka started talking again.

"Katara and I first found Aang in an iceberg. Now I didn't like Aang at first, but I grew to love him over time, then we went to the Southern Air Temple where Aang used to live and then we met the Kyoshi warriors and…"

Meanwhile everyone was either drifting off, or watching in wonder at the speed at which Sokka was talking.

"Wow," said Katara, "when he said beginning he meant beginning, beginning."

At this point Hakoda stood up and grabbed Sokka's shoulder.

"Thank you Sokka, why don't you take a break?"

Hesitantly, Sokka agreed and went back to sit down.

Hakoda turned to the crowd. "Now let me just clarify a few points for everyone! Today is the Day of Black Sun, and I want to thank you all for your self-sacrifice and you courage. There are two steps to the invasion, a naval stage and a land stage. To gain sea access to the Fire Nation capitol, we have to get past our first major obstacle here, the Great Gates or Azulon."

Hakoda flipped over to the next map. "Next, we hit land and we hit hard. We must fight past their battlements, and secure the plaza tower. Once we do that, it's up to the royal palace. At that point, the eclipse will begin."

The Boulder suddenly raised his hand. "Excuse me, the Boulder is confused. Isn't the point to invade during the eclipse, when the Firebenders are powerless?"

"The eclipse only lasts eight minutes, not enough time for the whole invasion, and the royal palace is heavily guarded by Firebenders, so that's where we'll need the eclipse advantage the most. When this is finished, the avatar will have defeated the Fire Lord! We will have control of the Fire Nation capitol, and this war will be over!"

This earned loud cheers from the crowd of soldiers and fighters. There were still some preparations to be made, and Dante had to tinker with his new pistols a bit, but that didn't stop him for noticing the discouraged look on Sokka's face.

* * *

After everyone was ready to go, the headed out; for a while, it was a pretty smooth ride, and Dante was able to not only find a right seal to place on his pistols, but apply them to completion. He had used a Seal of Matter Replication. It was any easy seal to apply if you knew it, all it required was a little of his blood and a tap from Rebellion to give it a demonic charge. The seal recreates the desired object or objects as many times as needed wherever the seal is placed.

In this case, he needed to recreate the powder and the metallic ball. He had been able to etch the seal into the firing tube after he had taken the thing apart and put it back together again using a few more demonic tricks. Now all he had to do was think of names for them. All his other weapons had names, and these would be no different. That was when he was cut short however; they had arrived at the gates.

"There they are," said Hakoda, peering through his telescope, "The great gates of Azulon."

"I don't see any gates," said Katara, confused.

Hakoda didn't seem to pay the comment any mind, and simply issued orders. "Katara, you and the swampbenders whip us up some fog cover."

"We'll sneak past them statues just like we did that Fire Navy blockade."

Katara and two swampbenders got into formation on the ship and used waterbending to heat up the water around the ships and create a cloud of steam. The gas rolled over their vessels and seemingly disguised them from the eyes of whoever was manning the gates.

"Keep it up, we're almost through!" said Hakoda.

Just then, alarms began to sound and they knew they were spotted. A giant net began to rise up from the water, and when it was as high as it could go the two dragon statues that held up the net breathed fire and set the rope ablaze. The ships still sailed forward even as everyone saw the raging flames and the buzz of the Fire Nation motor boats.

Luckily, they had a plan for this particular contingency.

"Everyone below deck!" shouted Hakoda.

No one needed to be told twice, and they all rushed down stairs. Hakoda leaned over and gripped his sons shoulder. "Let's hope your invention works."

Dante and Sokka were the last ones down. They closed up the hatch to the deck, and the demon hunter followed as they climbed down a concealed hatch in the floor to a second vehicle entirely that was attached to the underside of the boats.

They were pretty dim, but there was a lot more room to move around. As they departed, and descended further underwater, Dante looked out one of the window, looking down and seeing a few fish.

"You've really outdone yourself this time son," Dante heard Hakoda say.

"Yeah, congratulation Sokka," said Toph, obviously woozy, "you managed to invent an even worse method of travel than flying."

The duke took off his thin wooden helmet and offered it to Toph, which she promptly threw up in.

"Oh how the mighty have fallen," Dante chuckled, looking down at Toph.

"Well I just came up with the design," said Sokka, "the mechanist did all the work."

"Oh don't sell yourself short my boy; it was your idea to use waterbending to make the sub sink and float. Brilliant, though your original designs were a bit difficult to decipher. Unfortunately, there was one problem I couldn't fix. The subs have a limited air supply, before we reach the beaches, we'll need to resurface."

* * *

Some time later, the time to resurface came. Everyone stepped out of the subs to stretch their limbs while the supply of air was refilled. Aang jumped over to the sub the rest of the gang had been on.

"So, this is it huh?"

Sokka grinned. "Are you ready for the Fire Nation to know the avatar is alive?"

"I'm ready," he replied with a stone serious face.

Before Dante knew it, everyone was moving in for a group hug.

"I hope you kick some major Fire Lord butt Twinkletoes."

After that, while still in hug formation, they all looked to Dante. He glanced back, knowing what they wanted from him.

"Alright, what the hell," he sighed with a ghost of a smile on his face.

He stepped over and joined in, though it was short lived, as Hakoda's booming voice grabbed the attention of the invasion force.

"Everyone listen up, the next time we re-surface, it'll be on the beaches! So stay alert and fight smart! Now break times over, back in the subs!"

Toph, Sokka, and Dante headed off for the hatch back into the sub. The white haired swords master took note of the fact that Aang and Katara stayed behind. He had an idea of the direction their conversation would be taking, and he definitely didn't want to stay and be a moment killer, as tempting as it was. A month or two ago, maybe, but with all the crap he'd gone through with those four, Aang in particular, they were some of the very few people he'd exempt from his antics…most of the time.

With one last glance back, he hopped into the sub with the rest of the crew. As he walked up to the front control panel, Sokka looked impatient and passed him, heading for the ladder that led up to the top deck of the sub. He would have stopped him, but by the time he'd turned around he was already poking his head out the hatch.

He sealed up the hatch again, dropped down into the sub again, and the subs moved downward back into the water.

* * *

The rest of the ride towards the beach was relatively uneventful. Other than Toph getting a little sick again, nothing much was worthy of mention. Dante had double checked the seal on his new pistols, made sure all his weapons were properly fashioned, and lastly and most importantly, made sure his coat was clean. The avatar wasn't going to be the only surprise in the in battle today; everyone was about to witness the return of Redgrave.

Hakoda looked through the scope to the surface. "Alright everyone, into formation; Earthbenders, into you're tanks! It's going to be a rough ride!"

Toph and the other Earthbenders jumped down to the lowest level of the sub where the vehicles were held. Dante stood up and looked out the widows out into the water. Out of nowhere metal harpoons flew down through the water, just barely missing them as they made evasive maneuvers.

"Ready the torpedoes!" shouted Hakoda.

Dante could hear the clanks as the ice covered projectiles were loaded up.

"Launch!"

A slight thud hit the sub as the torpedo volley was fired, colliding with the metal grates that impeded their progress. With them out of the way, it was easy for the subs to get through. Now it was nothing but a waiting game, and Dante was getting antsy in anticipation, so much so that he voluntarily took a position at the front line with Hakoda, just a bit in front of Sokka.

He could hear the muffled explosions as the Fire Nation sent more metallic missiles at them. He counted the seconds until the doors finally opened. All of a sudden the sounds of the battle assaulted his ears and the rush of adrenaline was instant and satisfying. Once the tanks rolled out and the solders were under a significant amount of cover, they all let out a war cry, and charged forward.

Everyone quickly took formation. The tanks covered and surrounded the soldiers as they made their advance; meanwhile, Dante had jumped up and hitched a ride on top of one of the long centipede-like vehicles. He paid the turrets almost no mind at all as he eyed the gates, waiting for them to open and the courtyard to fill with adversaries.

He soon got his wish. The metal gates opened, and out poured a file of tanks. Finally with something to do, Dante leaped off the tank and ran ahead of the formation. The tanks unleashed a volley of fireballs, but Dante either dodged them, or simply shrugged them off. With a swift motion, he brought Rebellion back and launched it forward like a buzz-saw, slicing the first tank clean in half.

With the first attacker out of the war, he broke right and moved to one that was already assaulting the Earthbender tanks. He called Rebellion back, and once it had returned to his hand, he thrust it into the tanks side. Then, with a mighty heave, lifted it up with his sword and flung it up and across the valley that made up the beach, colliding with of the turrets.

At this point, the Earthbender tanks were moving up and crushing the rest of the tanks, while the swampbenders took care of their rear flank. Dante, not wanting to be shown up, again ran past the tanks and ended up facing down a team of firebenders atop mounts, firing small mobile artillery. A group of Water Tribe warriors -Hakoda and Sokka included- showed up behind him.

Dante smiled, put away Rebellion, and pulled out his pistols. In theory, all he should have to do now is pull the cock back and pull the trigger now that reloading had been eliminating; simple point and click. He pointed the white one in his right hand at his first target and pulled the trigger. The ball exploded out of the barrel with a little more force that he Dante was ready for, but it still hit somewhere along the lines of where he wanted. He was aiming for the chest, but it ended up hitting him in the bottom right abdomen. Either way, he fell from his mount.

To his right, Sokka leaped atop the lead rider and sliced his spear in half before knocking him from his mount. Sokka's attention turned to his father as he was attacked by a firebender and a soldier. With a well timed feint he was able to disarm the soldier before following it up with a low swipe, tripping up the firebender. As the elder Water Tribe warrior turned to face two more firebenders, Dante fired off the round from his black left handed pistol, downing another rider. He still had to get used to the recoil, it was throwing off his aim a bit.

He suddenly heard a whistling sound slowly growing louder. He turned around and looked up as one of the turret missiles slammed down right in front of him, blowing him backwards. He crashed back down to the ground on his back and tumbled a few more feet before finding his balance and standing up.

"Dante, you alright?" he heard Sokka call.

He shook his head to clear his dizziness. "Yeah, just peachy!"

"Sokka, we've gotta take out those battlements! It's our only chance!"

Sokka looked up. "I've got an idea."

"You guys take care of the right side, I've got own idea's for the left side!" shouted Dante. They both nodded and headed back down the line. Dante however, activated his Devil Trigger and whipped out Rebellion again. Now in his devil form, he stretched the wings the transformation granted him, and flew into the air, heading for the end of the left cliff.

A few of the missiles tried to shoot him down, but he was too small and swift for them to hit. Once he safely landed he turned to face the first battlement. He brought Rebellion back and began to charge a drive attack. For what he was planning to do, he'd need a lot of energy, so much so it took him almost three minutes to fully charge his blade.

When it got to the point that he doubted the broadsword could contain much more, he let out a demonic roar as he swung the blade, releasing the wave of red energy. The Drive was so wide, not to mention dense, that it easily sliced it's way down the entire row of battlements all the way to the other end of the cliff. He had completely annihilated the left flank defense in one attack, but it had left him winded. His Devil Trigger dropped as soon as he let the attack go.

He stood up shakily as Appa landed next to him. Katara jumped down from the bison and helped him up.

"I'm okay, I just need a breather. My strength should be back in a minute."

She nodded. "Come on, we've got to get my dad behind the lines a bit as it is, you can take a short rest there."

He didn't responded back, but simply climbed aboard with the younger girl's assistance. Once comfortably in the saddle, he looked over at Hakoda, who looked pretty banged up as Sokka held his arm over his shoulder for support.

They flew downward back towards the battle. With the battlements eliminated, their advance had quickened pace, and the Fire Nation was falling back. They landed behind some of the Earthbender tanks, and loaded Hakoda off Appa. Dante slid down, finding he could at least walk, but it would take a bit longer for him to be able to fight again. Katara began to heal the wounds he'd sustained fighting on the battlements.

"How does that feel dad?"

"A…a little better…I need to get back…to the troops."

He tried to get up, but Sokka and Katara, as well as his wounds, kept him down.

"You're hurt, badly. You can't fight anymore."

"Everyone's counting on me to lead this mission Katara, I won't let them down," he protested.

"Can't you heal him any faster?" asked Sokka.

"I'm doing everything I can."

Sokka glanced back at the battle. "I'll do it."

"No offense Sokka, but you're not exactly mister healing hands."

"I think he means the invasion Katara," pointed out Dante.

He stood up. "He's right."

"Don't be crazy Sokka!"

"Maybe I am a little crazy, but the eclipse is about to start and we need to be up that volcano by the time it does."

"You can do this," said Hakoda, "I'm proud of you Sokka."

"I still think you're crazy, but I'm proud of you to," said Katara.

Dante cleared his throat. "As much as I hate to break up this touching family moment, I would like to point out that the clock is still ticking and we're still sorta fighting an invasion here."

Sokka wordlessly put his helmet on and climbed aboard Appa. Dante hopped on as well, and the bison took flight, leaving Katara to continue healing her Father. Down below the battle still raged. The Fire Nation was still being pushed back, but without Hakoda to issue orders, things were beginning to become muddled and disorganized. Appa came down in front of a tank, and using his massive horns, knocked it aside like a play thing. While Sokka turned to give orders in place of his father, Dante leaped off of Appa's head into the fray to buy a little time as well as for the fun of it.

"Banzai!" he shouted as he flew through the air, and whipped out Cerberus, slamming one of the prongs into a tank and piercing it with ice spikes. A number of fire blasts came at him at once, which he was able to twist and turn out of the way of. As he attacked another tank with his nunchuk-like weapon, he heard Sokka give the order to charge, and he knew he had to speed things up.

He didn't know what the world would come to of Sokka of all people started looking cooler than him. With renewed vigor, he placed Cerberus back on his belt, and his instead pulled out Nevan and Rebellion. With a quick tap, he slid and locked Nevan into its scythe form, and he rushed forward dual wielding the broadsword and the sickle.

He rushed in-between two advancing tanks, and with a swipe from each of the weapons, destroyed their wheels, leaving them both to turn and crash into each other. With those two vehicles out of the way, he rushed up the stairs that led to the main gates into the city. Dozens of guards stood at the ready, and they were about to all attack.

That is until they saw his coat.

Up until now Dante had been fighting nothing but tanks and battlements, so they obviously couldn't see him very well. The artillery team was the only actual ground troops he'd fought, but he hadn't been using Rebellion then. Now though, with his red coat flapping, his broadsword shining, his white hair in the wind, and dozens of witnesses, he was finally getting some recognition.

He laughed like a maniac as he brought his weapons to bear. "That's right boys and girls, it's Redgrave!"

I was like detonating a barrel full of blasting jelly.

Some of the soldier panicked, and others began shooting fire blasts or swinging their weapons wilding and nervously. Dante capitalized on the confusion, and took the first opening he got and didn't hold back in the slightest. He was aiming for some blood.

He came up on a soldier wielding a sword first. He had his weapon raised extremely high, and Dante easily cut him down with Rebellion. To keep the momentum going, he them twisted back around and pierced through someone with Nevan. He heard another soldier shouting a battle cry from behind, so he pulled the scythe out of his already defeated adversary, and whipped the weapon around. The blunt side of the Devil Arm collided with the man's skull, most likely fracturing it at least.

With another soldier down, he ducked under a fire blast that from his right and, instinctually thrust Rebellion into the attacker. He heard a yelp of agony, a woman this time from the sound of it, and knew he'd hit his mark. He pulled the sword out again, and turned around to see the rest of his opponents.

One of the spear wielding troops finally got brave and thrust his weapon at him as he was turning around. With a swift feint, the soldier tripped over his own unbalanced weight and Dante easily finished him. With that, he slipped Rebellion back over his shoulder and flipped Nevan into its instrumental form.

"Here comes the pain!"

Dante lifted his hand and struck the cords. Suddenly the bats began to materialize out of the lightning and descended upon the soldiers. He kept making more and more of the bats as they flew among the troops tearing them apart. It didn't take very long, the little creatures were pretty fast workers.

Once the soldiers were nothing more than a bloody mess on the battlefield, Dante looked over at the huge gaping hole now in the wall. The invasion troops had broken through with the explosives, and were now flooding into the city. From what he could see, the defending troops that were left were small in number, so he decided to scout ahead and eliminate troops beyond the other end of the gates.

* * *

Lin rushed towards the gates that led into the plaza. She and two others were hurrying to help defend the gates that led into the city. As they ran, she felt nervousness creep up on her. Not because she was about to go into combat, she could come to terms with that. More it was because, somehow, she just knew Dante was nearby. She wasn't sure how, but the fact that just a few weeks ago she'd met someone who turned out to be a legendary swordsman famous for killing Fire Nation soldiers, and now there was an invasion of the capitol city…it was just too much of a coincidence.

She and her two companions turned a corner, only to be caught by surprise when someone dropped down from the roof of one of the buildings. There two loud bangs, and the two she'd been running with fell to the ground in an instant. She only glanced to the side for a moment, but when she turned back, he was gone.

Then she heard a click.

Slowly, she turned around, and she came face to face with the very person she'd just been thinking about. Obviously, Dante was a great deal surprised as well.

"Lin?"

"Dante?"

He slowly put down his pistols and holstered them. She relaxed as well; she go the feeling he wasn't going to hurt her. After all, they might have only known each other for about two days, but they were still friends…weren't they?

"So…what're you doing here?" she asked. She mentally smacked herself for asking such a dumb question; why else would he be here?

"Invading the Fire Nation, you?" he asked casually.

"Defending against the invasion."

He looked moderately surprised. "Really?"

She nodded. "I wanted to be a domestic soldier, remember? I'm still technically in training, but they even called the trainees into combat. It must be pretty bad."

"Right, I remember that," he trailed off.

There was an awkward silence after that. Dante sighed.

"This is sorta a conflict of interest, huh."

"Yeah."

He put his hands on his hips.

"Well look, I'm not gonna ask you to join up with us and betray your country or anything like that, but at the same time, I'm not gonna let you fight."

She frowned at him. "Why not?"

"Because, the soldiers coming this way, unlike me, don't know you; they're gonna want to take you out. Please, just turn around and go somewhere safe, stay out of the fighting."

She stood still. Dante stared back at her, neither of them really willing to turn around and walk the other direction.

"Can I ask you something Dante?"

"Shoot."

"Why?"

Dante raised a curious eyebrow. "Why what?"

"Why is this invasion happening?"

Dante let out another sigh. "You don't have any clue what the Fire Nation's really been doing to people out there, do you?"

She said nothing, just kept staring up at him.

"I'll just say this. Remember that little girl I saved, the one that got me the name Redgrave? What was about to happen to her is in no way an isolated incident."

The statement seemed to rattle her.

"They abuse people, destroy property, separate families, and unjustly imprison people on a daily basis. I know for a fact that for the last century the Fire Lords have been selling the war off as a way to bring wealth to the world. That's a load of bullshit; this isn't about sharing wealth and prosperity Lin, this is a family of madmen trying to achieve world domination. They don't even give a damn about their own soldiers, let alone some defenseless girl in a backwater village halfway around the world."

Dante took a few steps closer to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. She almost winced at the sudden physical contact, but remained in place.

"You're a good person Lin, I could tell that the second I met you. You're too good to be serving someone like Ozai. Like I said, I'm not asking you to change sides; I just thought you might like to know a little about the team you're already playing for. Now go, get outta here."

She was still silent and unmoving, soaking in all of what he had said. Was he right; was the Fire Nation really as…evil, as he said they were? What he had told her now left her with seeds of doubt. As much as she wanted to ignore them, she couldn't, why would Dante lie about something like that?

"You there, what're you doing!"

Dante looked up and Lin turned around. There were five domestic troops all standing in fighting stances.

"I asked you a question, what do you think you're doing. That man's part of the invasion force, he's the enemy!" said the lead soldier, a tall, burly, and bald man.

"I…but…I just," Lin stuttered back.

"Kill him, that's an order!"

Lin glanced nervously back at Dante, who hadn't moved an inch.

"What're you waiting for, do it?"

Slowly, Lin turned completely around and stared up at him. He just smiled slightly.

"It's okay, I won't be mad. I can just play possum until they leave," he whispered.

The lead soldier was getting impatient. "Kill him now or I'll kill you both!"

Lin closed her eyes. "Dante…I don't know what to do."

"Just do what your gut tells you."

"That's it, fry them both!" they heard the soldier yell.

Dante looked up; the five soldiers fired their own individual fire blasts. Dante grabbed a hold of Lin and got her safely behind him as the fire closed in. The explosion rocked the immediate area, and initially the soldiers were satisfied. That was until they heard a deafening bang, and their leader fell to the ground, dead.

As the smoke cleared, the remaining soldiers saw Dante unharmed, with his right handed pistol aimed in their general direction. Meanwhile Lin stood next to him, also unharmed.

He glanced down at her.

"It's still not too late, you can sneak attack me and look like a hero."

She looked back up at him, then to the soldiers. She took Dante's advice and listened to her gut. Suddenly her choice was all that much easier to make.

Lin stood up, and with a quick motion, fired off a steady stream of fire back at the soldiers, forcing them to take cover and flee. After they were all gone, Dante placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You didn't have to do that you know. I wasn't gonna make you do any of that, you could have just pretended to kill me, I would have been fine."

"You said to follow my gut, and I did. My gut said that if it was a choice between those soldiers, who were ready to kill me at the drop of a pin just because I wouldn't take someone else's life and you…, I should choose you."

Dante sighed, but smiled. "Well regardless, it looks like I'm stuck with you now."

She grinned back at him. "Now what's that supposed to mean?"

The happy moment was suddenly overshadowed by a feeling of malice. Dante glanced around, trying to find its source. Whatever it was, it was aimed at him.

"What's wrong Dante?"

"Lin, you should really get out of here. I don't know what, but something's coming, and the further you are from me, the better."

Whatever Lin was about to say next was cut off when whatever was coming…well, showed up. There was a loud crash, and both Dante and Lin had to shield their eyes for a moment. When the dust settled, they both stared up at the behemoth before them. Its skin was gray, but its hands and feet seemed to glow with a silvery light. It had an axe-like horn on its head, and it was missing one eye.

It looked down at them and sniffed like a dog looking for a lost bone. _**"I've finally found you son of Sparda! I've followed your foul stench ever since you stepped foot near this mountain!"**_

"Dante," asked Lin, "what is that?"

"That Lin, is a seemingly very pissed off demon that want to kill me. Now would be a great time for you to get outta here."

She stood her ground. "No way, if you're fighting, then I'm fighting!"

"You're not even technically part of the army yet Lin," he protested.

"I've been practicing firebending ever sense I was twelve, I've got six years experience under my belt! Don't think I'm a pushover!"

Dante growled and pushed his face into his palm. "I don't doubt your ability to firebend, I'm doubting your ability to fight a twelve meter high demon! I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't important, now please, suck up your pride and just hide or something!"

Honestly, she knew that to. She finally gave in and ran down the street, headed into an alleyway, and peaked around the corner so she could still watch the fight. It wasn't quite what Dante had in mind, but it would have to do.

Either way, he pulled out Rebellion; he turned his attention back to the big sack of ugly in front of him.

"Okay big guy, now that that's taken care of, let's dance."

**

* * *

I do hope everyone was satisfied. If not...well there's not much I can do, but feel free to bitch and moan at me about it anyway (coughnotreallycough).**

**Reviews are appreciated.  
**


	15. Chapter 15: Down in Flames

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 15

**Down in Flames**

Yo, what's up everybody! I'm finally back with more action and adventure! After being gone so long, I hope I didn't miss something and drop the ball, but as far as I know, everything came out pretty well.

Not much else to say except, "LETS ROCK!"

* * *

Dante ducked as the huge gray gorilla-dog's fist smashed the building next to him. With an opening no present, the swordsmaster charged forward. Leaping into the air, and bounding off the roof of another nearby home, he flew towards his foe with Rebellion outstretched.

The monstrosity jerked to the side at the last moment as he freed his fist from the rubble. Instead of stabbing his head like Dante had planned, he settled for his shoulder blade. The end result was still roar of pain as the sharpened slab of demonic metal pierced through his flesh, but it wasn't a killing blow like Dante had hoped it would be.

In haste, he ripped the blade free of its fleshy prison, and leaped back to gain distance. Mid-jump, Dante found himself suddenly in the grasp of his opponent, and just as suddenly, was flung down the street straight into the ground.

As the plume of dust and stray fragments of stone fell to the ground after the impact, Lin watched in silent amazement as Dante stood right back up after a moment, walked out of the crater, and simply rubbed his head a little, looking annoyed.

"Gotta hand it too ya there big guy, that one kinda hurt. What's your name anyway?"

_**"I am Beowulf, and you shall join your father in the grave!"**_

"So pops really is toast, huh? Oh well, can't say I wasn't expecting it, though I'm pretty sure a guy like you wasn't the one to do him in, otherwise you'd have a lot more scars than just that one missing eye."

Beowulf snorted a few times and dropped onto all fours, taking on a more feral fighting stance. Dante chuckled and nodded as he spun Rebellion.

"Yeah, you're right. Less talk, more action."

The gray demon took the first move, running at him like an attack dog, and leap into the air to crush Dante under his own massive weight. The swordsman jumped and rolled forward, dodging the body-slam and rebounding onto his feet.

Beowulf roared as he twisted around, and he erupted in a golden aura. Odd wings jutted out his back, and he immediately began firing glowing arrow like energy blasts that apparently had the ability to home in on him. To counter, Dante used a Million Stab technique and pierced each blast as they came in. He was moving Rebellion so fast it really did appear to any who may have been watching that he was using a million different swords.

The blasts eventually subsided, and Dante ran forward grabbing Cerberus as he progressed forward. He threw it forward, extending one of the prongs to try and strike Beowulf, distracting him long enough for him to get a solid hit in. Unfortunately for Dante, Beowulf had surprisingly fast reflexes, and caught Cerberus mid-flight. With one heave of his arm, Dante was flying over the demons head, and was slammed head first into the ground.

For a few moments, Lin watched and waited for Dante to get up, but he didn't, and Beowulf was getting closer to him, his hands pulsating with more of his burning bright light. It was at this point that Lin decided to jump into the fight. Regardless of how impressive Dante's fighting abilities were –and they were impressive- this big lug was getting old fast, and considering she'd just technically switched sides, she had an invasion to help win.

She leaped out from the alleyway, and attacked with three quick fireballs to Beowulf's back, as he had already passed her "hiding place". The demon turned around with a growl, and roared in her face when his eyes fell on her. He cocked his fist back, signaling Lin it was time to dive out of the way. The fist cleaved the stone road away as Lin dodged the attack.

She rolled to a stop back onto her feet, slid into a low stance, and fired a much larger fireball out of both her hands. It impacted and exploded against the right side of Beowulf's face, sending him into a fit as his claw moved to clutch his head. He charged around in a blind rage, smashing everything he touched, and was coming up to Lin fast. Luckily, she felt someone grasp her waist at the last moment and pull her into the air. A moment later, she was standing on atop a roof with Dante as he holstered away Cerberus.

_**"Curse you, son of Sparda! Though my sight may be gone, I will never forget your scent! I will have my revenge yet!"**_

With that, Beowulf leaped off through the city, smashing through houses until he disappeared from sight. As soon as things quieted down, Dante let his arm fall limp and sighed.

"That was a close one, I thought I told you to stay clear," he scolded.

Lin shot him a frustrated look. "What, and let you get smashed into the ground some more? Besides, who just drove off big ugly, because I don't think it was you?"

"I was trying to play possum; you just jumped in at the last minute and almost got yourself killed! I've taken much worse hits than that, and I can heal, unlike you!"

"Well excuse me for being scared for you life!"

"I'm not the one you should be worrying about!"

Before the argument could be continued, Dante grabbed the back of her collar and leaped back down to the ground, dragging Lin along with him. As soon as they hit the ground, Dante released her and began walking back the way they had come.

"I'll leave you with my friends; you'll still be in the fight, but they'll watch your back. It'll be safer than where I'm headed."

Lin looked up at the sky and sighed; today was just getting more and more complicated. What she caught sight of in the sky a moment later would only continue that streak.

"Uh Dante, what's that?" she asked, pointing up.

Dante looked up and located what she was referring to: Aang on his glider, flying back to the invasion force. The eclipse hadn't started yet, what the hell was he doing?

"Oh…that can't be good."

In one fluid motion, the swordsman turned a complete 180, grabbed Lin, threw her over his shoulder, and turn again to form a 360 revolution, only to dash off a moment later. He could hear her protests and demands to put her down, but he was in a bit too much of a hurry to head them. Something was up, and he had to find out what.

With breakneck speed he rushed clear through the Fire Nation lines before they even thought about attacking him, and hurried back to the invasion force.

* * *

Aang came in for a landing right in front of his friends just behind the front lines, twirled his staff, and retracted the wings as his feet tapped the ground.

"Please tell me you're here because the Fire Lord turned out to be a huge wimp and you didn't even need the eclipse to take him down," said Sokka.

"He wasn't home, nobody was. The entire palace city is abandoned."

Sokka's eyes widened in realization. "They knew."

Just then they heard a loud noise; like boots clanking against metal and a loud, loud shouting.

"Yo kid, what's the deal? You kick the Fire Lords ass already or what?"

They all looked up to see Dante and…a girl? They all gave him strange looks as he set Lin down.

"It's a long story. Anyway, what's goin' on?"

"The entire palace city is abandoned," informed Katara.

"The Fire Lord's probably long gone; on some remote island where he'll be safe during the eclipse," said Aang desperately.

Sokka rubbed his chin in thought. "No, my instincts tell me he wouldn't go too far. He'd have a secret bunker, somewhere he'd be safe during the siege, but still be close enough to lead his nation."

"If it's an underground secret bunker we're looking for, then I'm just he girl to find it," Toph volunteered.

"The mechanist gave me this timing device," said Sokka, pulling out a small brown handheld machine, "It looks like we've got about ten minutes until the full eclipse, ten minutes to find the Fire Lord."

Hope returned to Aang's face. "We can still do this; we can still win the day!"

"Wait," interrupted Katara, "if they knew we were coming, this could all be a trap. Maybe we should use the time we have left to make sure we all get out of here safely."

"Everyone who's here today came prepared to risk everything for this mission," said Hakoda, "They know what's at stake. If there's a chance, and there's still hope, then I think they'd want Aang to go for it."

Dante leaned on Rebellion as he stood. "Regardless, I gotta go after my brother. He's still got stuff of mine, and if he's anywhere, he's probably hangin' with the psycho-princess, and I'll bet anything she's in that bunker to."

Sokka turned to Aang. "What do you think; you're the one who has to face the Fire Lord? Whatever you decide, I'm with you."

Aang stood up and faced the mountain again. "I've gotta try."

That was all anyone needed to hear. The group made a straight run for Appa save for Katara who was tending to Hakoda. As Dante approached the massive bison, he tried to stop Lin.

"Lin, just stay here."

Her face hardened. "Do you think I'm weak or something, Dante? That I'm just some precious little girl whose hand you have to hold?"

"No, I…"

"Then quit treating me like one! I didn't side with you just to sit on the sidelines, I'm helping out whether you like it or not!"

Dante sighed. "I know you want to help, but the thing is, the solar eclipse is coming, and when it does, you and all the other Firebenders are losing your bending!"

"So what? I'll lose my bending, but so will everyone else, it's still an even playing field, and don't think for one second I'm helpless without my bending, I can take care of myself!"

Dante was about to argue some more, when it occurred to him that they were on the clock, and that the solar eclipse was his last legitimate argument. Defeated, he helped her onto the bison before climbing on himself.

"Dante," addressed Sokka as Appa lifted off.

He looked over at the younger warrior, who was leaning in so that only they could hear the conversation.

"Are you sure about bringing that girl along; she's Fire Nation. We don't even know her."

"I know her, and trust me; she isn't a spy if that's what you're thinkin'. Remember back when Aang and I were in those schools?"

He nodded.

"Well me and her palled around a little while we were there. She figured out who I was before we left and promised to keep it a secret, she's fine."

He looked as though he were mulling it over for a moment before submitting. "Okay, if you trust her I guess I can give her the benefit of the doubt. Keep an eye on her though, better safe than sorry."

"Fair enough," he said in a normal tone of voice, "and speakin' of which, I think introductions are in order."

"Guys this is Lin," said Dante, presenting her to the rest of his friends.

She waved to them slowly, not quite sure what to say. "Um…hi?"

"Anyway Lin, over there's Toph, A.K.A The Blind Bandit."

Toph raised her hand. "Yo."

"Then we got Sokka, A.K.A The Whiny Map Guy."

"Hey!"

Ignoring him, Dante continued. "And last but not least, we got the kid himself, Aang the freakin' Avatar!"

The monk turned his head and smiled kindly. "Hi there!"

"The avatar; you mean he's actually alive?"

"Sure, you didn't think we'd invade the Fire Nation without a trump card did ya?"

She was about to respond when Sokka cut her off. "Get set guys, we're coming in for a landing!"

A moment later, Appa's six legs finally touched ground again, and the five youths slipped off the saddle and onto the mountainside. They all gathered around Toph as she used her Earthbending to scan underground.

"Do you feel anything down there?" asked Aang.

"Yup, there are natural tunnels crisscrossing through the inside of the volcano," she said, her hand pressed against the surface.

"Anything else," asked Sokka "is there a structure somewhere?"

Toph raised her hands and grasped the rock, crunching it easily under her grip. "There's something big, dense, and made of metal deep in the heart of the volcano."

"Sounds like a secret bunker to me."

Meanwhile, Lin questioned Dante on the small twelve year old that was currently smashing a tunnel through the rock. "How does she know there's something down there?"

"It's an Earthbender thing. Eventually you'll just stop questioning it, and start appreciating it."

With that, he led her into the hole in one of the outer tunnels discovered by Toph as they followed the group.

"This way, that one's a dead end!"

"What would we do without you?" complimented Sokka.

"Perish in burning hot magma," she replied.

Sokka grimaced. "Yeah, pretty much."

It was then that they came up upon a scorching hot field of steam geysers.

"The tunnel continues on the other side, and it leads right to the bunker," pointed Toph.

Dante sighed. "Why does every last thing we do have to be difficult? Whoever controls fate must really have it out for us."

"We'll have to be fast, but careful," advised Sokka as he took his first step.

Just as he stepped forward, a geyser erupted with hot magma. Luckily Dante pulled the Water Tribe warrior back just in time as Aang used Airbending to cool the molten rock and solidify it.

"How is that careful?" Aang addressed Sokka.

"I was wrong; we'll have to be fast, careful, and _lucky_."

"We're boned."

Still, the five took off from their safe haven as fast as they could. Aang was in the lead, with Toph and Sokka behind him, and finally Dante and Lin trailing the rear. In all honesty, Dante could have probably beat Aang there, but he hung back to keep an eye on Lin. He didn't want to physically do anything, that would only hurt her pride more, but at the same time he didn't want to be so far away that he couldn't help her.

Ultimately his concerns were unwarranted; Lin had made it across the field quickly and unharmed.

"See, I told you I would be fine!" boasted Lin.

Dante was about to say something back, but held his tongue when he noticed the group has stopped. It was understandable considering there was no floor, and the entire passageway was filled with magma.

"There's no floor, it's just a river of lava!" said Sokka, stating the obvious.

Aang looked at his four other companions. His glider didn't have the strength to carry all four of them at once, and making two trips would just waste valuable time. It left only one solution.

"Dante, my glider can't carry all of you; you're going to have to carry Lin with your Devil Trigger."

"I figured as much. Alright, hold on a sec," he said, turning to Lin.

He sighed and began his short and sweet explanation. "Alright Lin, I'm about to do somethin' really weird, so just do me a favor and don't freak out too much okay?"

Lin blinked a few times. "Okay, I guess."

"Alright then."

Dante took a deep breath, and called up the Devil Trigger, enveloping him in a temporarily blinding flash of light before dying back down to reveal his red and horned demonic form. Lin immediately gasped and took a few steps back instinctually.

"Don't be scared Lin, its still Dante," explained Aang.

"Yeah, I mean, he looks really creepy, but he's still the same sarcastic jerk on the inside," added Sokka.

_"I resent that; I'm still a sarcastic jerk on the outside to, I've just got wings now."_

Lin smiled, both because she found their small argument a little humorous, and because she was relieved that what they said was true. It was definitely Dante in there.

"So I guess you're carrying me, right?"

Dante nodded.

"Alright, just be careful what you grab," she half teased. Dante's face would have gone red in embarrassment had his face not already been red naturally.

It took only a moment for Toph and Sokka to load onto Aangs glider while Dante carried Lin bridal style. Both flyers expertly maneuvered through the bubbling lava and rock columns that impeded their progress until they made it to the other side. With their trip complete, Dante released his Devil Trigger, returning to his normal looking self.

They wasted no time with idol chatter; they ran straight down the hall leading to the bunker. True to Toph's words, the bunker entrance really was at the end. All that stood in their way now was a metallic door.

"That's some door!" exclaimed Sokka.

Dante and Toph looked at each other.

"You wanna do this one, or should I?" he asked.

"Why not a duet?"

The demon hunter smirked. "Sounds like a plan twerp."

They both walked up to the door, and Dante watched as Toph tapped it a few times with her knuckles.

"Yup, not a problem," she concluded.

"On the count of three then malady?"

"It would be my pleasure good sir."

Dante cracked his knuckles, as did Toph. After which Dante held out his fist to Toph.

"Alright, 1…"

She bumped the top of his fist with the bottom of hers.

"…2…"

He returned the favor.

"…3!"

Both their fists struck side by side in the exact same location, punching a whole through the door like it was a piece of paper. Then they removed their fists, and grabbed the edges of their small new opening, and peeled away the metal like a scab on a wound. Just like that, their way was open.

"I am so glad we added you both to the group!" praised Sokka as they made their way through the door.

* * *

Meanwhile, deeper in the mountain, Vergil stood with the Fire Lord in his private chamber. For reasons unknown to him, Ozai had taken some sort of interest in him. Still, he doubted the man was much of a threat as he was, so he let it slip from his mind.

More to the point, he couldn't bother to think about it what with his brother's meddling. He was close by, he could sense him. There was something else though, another presence of demonic nature. Not quite as bit as his or Dante's, but large enough for the blue clad swordsman to take notice; especially since it was coming his way much faster and more directly than Dante.

"Your Lordship, I believe we are about to receive some unwelcome company."

"How close are they to the chamber entrance?"

Vergil looked to the wall of his left. "I sincerely doubt he will be using the door."

The prediction was proven correct almost instantly as, from the wall, crashed Beowulf on all fours, sniffing and tracking in his primal rage. He caught Vergil's scent and deduced his location. He crept closer and closer, while Vergil only took two steps off the slightly elevated pedestal where the Fire Lord sat.

_**"I found you, seed of Sparda! I told you that I remembered your rancid scent! No matter where you run to, you can never hide from me!"**_

This…thing…was getting quite annoying. No doubt he'd run into Dante somewhere along the way, and was mistaking the two of them. No matter, he was blind, and relatively weak. It would be child's play to defeat him.

Beowulf raised his paw to attempt to smash Vergil, and in response, faster than either the demon or the Fire Lord could see, the swordsman had elegantly flipped to avoid the attack, and onto Beowulf's back. He was already dead; he just didn't know it yet. Knowing the battle was now long over, Vergil slowly and precisely sheathed his blade.

_**"Y-you are not the one I faced the before…but the smell…there are two of them! That excrement Sparda had two sons!"**_

It was at this point that Vergil fully sheathed his sword, and Beowulf's head fell into four equally bloody pieces all over the floor. As the body went limp, Vergil stepped off the carcass and onto the floor once more, then turned to receive his prize; a Devil Arm.

The white orb floated to him, and burst into a flash of light. After the light faded, Vergil was granted pulsating silver gauntlets and boots that seemed to radiate with power. Inspecting them, he decided to try them out. He rushed the corpse of Beowulf, and knocked it into the air with an uppercut. The body slammed into the ceiling, and as it fell, Vergil met it, and delivered a mid-air kicked that propelled it back out the hole it had made in the wall, removing it from the room.

The swordsman landed expertly on his feet, satisfied with his new weapons. As he returned to his original resting spot, Ozai began to applaud him.

"Marvelous Vergil, simply stunning; I only wish all warriors were as graceful in combat. Perhaps then war would be a bit less of a gruesome thing, don't you think?"

"Doubtful," he replied, uninterested.

Ozai stared off into the distance for a moment before sighing. "If it isn't too troubling for you Vergil, I would as that you join my daughter in the throne room. I would hate for her to be alone on such an amusing day."

He caught he message. Vergil wanted him there to protect his precious daughter; the Avatar and his friends –his brother most likely included- would be heading to the throne room, and inevitably engage her in battle. With both the Avatar and Dante there, she would undoubtedly be overwhelmed.

"Very well."

He leaned forward, and was a blur of movement for a split second, before finally disappearing completely.

* * *

Rushing down the cavernous hallway, the group of five passed by a separate hallway, and an older man on a walk. They all whipped around and entered fighting stances, intimidating the helpless noble. He put his hands up in surrender quickly.

"The Fire Lords chamber is that way; down the hall, to the left, up the stairs, you can't miss it!"

Aang then suddenly dropped his scowl. "Thanks!"

With the information they needed, they passed the old man by, and ran down the hallway adjacent from the one they'd just come from. As they ran, Sokka pulled out his timer, watching the clock.

"Only thirty more seconds until the total eclipse!"

"Sokka, we don't need a countdown; or do you want a repeat of the four days leading up to the invasion?" shouted Dante.

Sokka grimaced, probably recalling the multiple sleepless nights. "I'll shut up now."

Not a moment too soon. What was presented at the end of the hall was a grand golden/orange-ish red door, no doubt signifying the Fire Lord's presence. Aang took a deep breath.

"I'm ready. I'm ready to face the Fire Lord."

With a whip of his staff, a wave of air blew the doors aside and straight off their hinges, creating a crash that echoed all through the room. While they were in the right room, who they saw wasn't exactly what they were expecting.

"So, you two are alive," purred Azula.

She was propped up on her father's throne, obviously a decoy.

"I had a hunch that you survived Avatar, and as for you Dante…well, even Vergil himself said he doubted that he had killed you. At first I had my doubts, but now I'm starting to believe he spared you."

"Are you still spouting on about that delusion," said a plain and seemingly bored voice.

Dante looked over to Azula's left and saw Vergil leaning against one of the pillars, his arms crossed. He opened his eyes and pushed himself off his resting area, striding across the room until he was directly in front of the throne.

"There is no love lost between us, is there brother."

Dante pulled Rebellion free, anxiously twirling it as he stepped up to stand next to Aang.

"Not while you got my property there's not," he growled.

"It was a real stupid move sidin' with the Fire Nation Verg'. We've been kickin' their asses up and down their own capitol all day. This war's as good as over, and so are you."

"It doesn't matter," chimed in Azula, "I've known about the invasion for months."

Aang ground his teeth. "Where is he, where's the Fire Lord?"

Azula fake pouted. "You mean we're not good enough for you? You're hurting my feelings."

"Stop wasting our time and give us the information," demanded Sokka, pointing the tip of his sword at her threateningly, "You're powerless right now, so you're in no position to refuse!"

Azula still didn't seem worried. "True, I'm without my bending at the moment, but Vergil doesn't need bending to fight. Even if you managed to defeat him, the eclipse would be long over by then, and the entire point of the invasion would be completely defeated."

It was then that Vergil did something that changed the entire situation.

He stepped aside.

"Vergil, what is the meaning of this?" demanded Azula.

"My sincerest apologies princess, but I and my brother have matters of our own to settle. I'm afraid I must leave you for the moment. I wish you the best of luck."

The two brothers met each other's gazes.

"Come brother, I fear this chamber will be a bit too crowded for our affairs. Meet me at the opposite of the hall."

With that, his motions blurred for a moment before he disappeared.

"Damn that man," muttered Azula under her breath.

Dante almost laughed out loud, but that probably would have killed the mood. Instead he looked back at the others, who all gave him a silent but stern nod to go after Vergil. He grinned, and patted Aang's shoulder before running down the hall to meet his brother. Not a few moments later he heard bangs and sounds of battle erupting from the chambers.

He almost stopped and ran back, but he knew he shouldn't. They had their job to do, and he had his. Vergil probably knew where the Fire Lord was just like Azula; if he could beat him, then he could grab Aang and take him there before the eclipse ended. That was, of course, if he could defeat Vergil in the time allotted, which honestly, he doubted he could do. Still though, he at least had to retrieve his amulet.

At the end of the hall, there was a large circular room of nothing but empty space and rock. Vergil stood in the center, waiting for his brother's arrival.

"You're very persistent, you know that?"

Dante shrugged. "I am who I am. Still, I thought you liked fighting me."

"I'm merely pointing out you arrive at very inconvenient times," he replied, the two of them now circling around the room, both of them palming their hilts.

Dante sneered. "Well, sorry if I interrupted your quality time with your new girlfriend."

"Ha, you actually think I would waste valuable time associating with that Fire Nation trash."

"Well I'm just sayin', that's the longest I've seen you stand next to somebody and not decapitate em, I figured somethin' mighta been goin on. Looks like I was wrong though; and here I thought my big bro mighta finally actually gotten some. What a shame. On the bright side, I can still call ya 'Vergil the Virgin'!" Dante said with a laugh.

"Enough!" roared Vergil, "If you've come to claim your amulet, then cease with this childish behavior and fight me!"

Dante grinned as he slipped into stance. "Yup, definitely still hasn't gotten any."

A moment of silence was all that divided the conversation and the sudden shift to action as Dante and Vergil bolted after each other and locked blades with each other. Vergil noticed that, unlike last time they faced each other, it would be much harder to relieve Dante of his blade. His grip was stronger, and he was pushing harder than before. He'd been training.

The momentary slip into thought dulled Vergil's senses just long enough for Dante to remove on his hands and grab for one of his pistols. Before his older brother knew what he was doing, Dante had already lifted the firearm up into a firing position and the metal projective exploded right in Vergil's face, causing him to reel back clutching his face.

When the round finally ejected itself from Vergil's head and he could see again, he was greeted with the sight of Dante with what looked like a giant purple electrically charged instrument. His younger brother's combo continued as the object slammed into the side of his skull, knocking him clear across the room into the rocky wall that encircled them.

After the strike, Dante dispelled Nevan, knowing he'd need as little weight holding him down when fighting Vergil. He was already tons faster than him; he didn't need an entire arsenal on his back slowing him. Now, with Rebellion in hand once more, he eyed the crater where his brother resided. He'd been in there longer than he'd expected; something was up.

"Oh Vergil, come on out and play bro!" he called.

Vergil responded by warping right in front of him and slamming his fist into Dante's gut. Normally a punch from Vergil would hurt, but Dante would be able to shake it off, but this one hurt like a bitch! He knelt over clutching his stomach against his best efforts, and Vergil took advantage the posture and delivered an easy uppercut, blowing Dante straight into the ceiling. As he fell, Vergil warped up into the air above his brother and flipped over as he finished with a powerful axe-kick straight to his chest. Dante slammed back down to the ground on his back, creating an indent of his body in the stone floor.

"You're not the only one with new weapons brother," he said, displaying Beowulf in all its radiant glory.

"Get up Dante, you being defeated in only three strikes is impossible, even for me."

Dante grinned and finally popped his eyes open. "Dang, I guess playing possum still doesn't work on you."

"It didn't work when we were seven, it won't work now."

With a sigh, the younger of the two sat up and cracked his neck. Once they were both standing steady, Vergil drew Yamato once more, and Dante brought Rebellion to bear.

"So, you ready to finally get the real party started?"

"I thought you would never ask."

In a flash, both of them surged their demonic energies and entered their respective Devil Triggers. The two brothers leaped at each other with haste.

"Let's rock!" shouted Dante as their blades met and the entire room was flooded with a bright explosion of purple light.

* * *

Back with Lin and the rest of the gang, things weren't going very smoothly. For a while they had subdued Azula, but after the firebending came back on after the eclipse, despite their best efforts, she escaped. After convincing going after the Fire Lord was a fool's errand now that he had his attack power back, they decided to move to try and retreat.

Lin personally volunteered to go after Dante while the rest of them went back out to help fight the remainder of the battle. Time was of the essence, so there wasn't much time to argue; they had a plan, and they weren't about to rethink it. The Fire Nation native ran down the rock hallway she'd watched Dante go down with his brother, and could already hear the sound of clashing metal and explosions.

As Lin made it down to the end of the hallway, her heart almost flew out of her chest when the walls suddenly exploded in front of her. She slid to a stop and coughed as stray dust invaded her lungs. As her vision cleared, she saw an amazing sight. Dante and Vergil were both in Devil Trigger and their battle seemed to be raging without end. Their movements were so fast she honestly couldn't follow them at all; she was seeing dozens of afterimages, so many they were almost indiscernible from the real ones, wherever they were.

Though to the normal human eye, the winner was impossible to decide, Dante and Vergil both knew the score. The frustrating truth was that Dante, for all his preparation and training, was still losing. It wasn't so much that Vergil was outclassing his younger brother like he had in their last two confrontations; it was a simple matter of Devil Triggers. While in their respective forms, they were a near even match, Vergil had almost two years experience with his Devil Trigger, while Dante had just a little under two months. Vergil could remain in his current state for hours on end, but Dante was limited –especially after using it twice before the battle- to a few minutes to a half an hour at maximum.

Those waning minutes were about to run out.

Dante sidestepped Yamato and swung Rebellion in retaliation, which Vergil managed to back and avoid, ending with both of them shifting back to face each other head on. As Dante lifted his blade to attack, his fatigue finally caught up to him, and he suddenly felt his Devil Trigger drop, leaving him in his normal human form.

Just like that, the fight was over. Vergil was on him before he fully understood what had even happened. If he had still been in Devil Trigger form, he probably would have been able to counter the attack, but as he was, it was simply too fast. He felt Beowulf slam into his chest and blow him into the hallway, right passed Lin, and slid against the rock floor until the friction finally dragged him to a stop.

With his brother dealt with, he turned his attention to Lin. He raised Beowulf again and charged a blast of light energy, aiming for her until he realized he recognized her. He remembered she had been with the Avatar's group when they burst into the throne chamber. Wordlessly, he aimed upward and the last moment, the blast striking the ceiling instead of the girl, collapsing the cavernous hall, and cutting them off from each other.

Now that the battle was over, Vergil dropped his own Devil Trigger, and turned away, heading back to the Fire Lords chambers. He was expecting an earful for leaving Azula on her own, but it had been worth it.

* * *

Dante growled as he sat up again; his brother beat him and got a way again. Got away with _his amulet_! He tired to stand up and claw his way to the rubble, trying desperately to go after Vergil, but he felt a pair hands on his shoulders that stopped him. He weakly looked over his shoulder and saw Lin.

"Dante, come on, we're getting out of here! The Fire Lord knew; he knew your entire plan from the start! Everyone's already retreating; we need to catch up to them!"

Dante looked back at the rubble. "I need…to get Vergil."

"There's no time, we have to go!" she said, pulling him back.

Lin took it upon herself to place Rebellion back over Dante's back and toss his arm over her shoulder and hauled him up, opting to carry him out herself. She got the impression that he wasn't 'all there', because even though he was complaining about not being able to chase Vergil, he was still helping support his own weight and continued walking with a slight limp.

Together they backtracked to the forked pathway they had all originally come down before they encountered Azula. At first she panicked; left only went further into the mountain, and the right led to the river of magma. Thanks to the echoing effect the tunnels held however, she could clearly hear the reverberating sounds of explosions and battle coming from the direction of the river of lava.

Curious, she dragged Dante through the right tunnel and kept going until she found the flow of molten rock disrupted by a large collapsed stone slab reaching deep into the river and all the way up to the surface. Concluding it was their only chance of getting out at all, Lin held tight to Dante, and leaped off the edge onto the slanted platform below.

She landed on her feet, and ignored the shellshock as she dug her shoes into the rough surface of rock to keep both her and Dante from sliding down into the lava as she gained her balance. Carefully, she stood up and continued to lug her white haired companion out of the scorching hot cavern. As the temperature finally started to cool and the sun shined down on her face, she saw the huge war balloons already attacking the bay and destroying whatever method of escape the invasion force may have had.

They had escaped the tunnels, but they weren't out of the woods yet.

* * *

The Gang made a pass around the mountain on Appa. The invasion failed, and the youngest of the force had loaded onto Appa for a quick escape, and none of the four planned on leaving Dante behind. Toph personally threatened to knock anyone's block off who even suggested it.

Luckily for them, fate decided to show them some pity. After their crushing defeat, they were relieved to at least be able to find both Dante and Lin. Their vibrant red clothing made them easier to spot against brown rock. Appa gave a groaning roar to signal their approach, to which Lin turned around and smiled in equal relief.

As the bison's feet hit the ground, Sokka and Toph jumped off to take Dante for Lin, while Aang questioned her as to what happened after they split up.

"His brother happened," was her response.

"Did he win; did he get his amulet back?"

She shook her head. "It looked close for a minute, but then his transformation dropped, and after that…"

Aang nodded in understanding. "Come on then; you saved Dante, and he trusts you, so I do to. We need to hurry."

"Right, thank you."

As Sokka and Toph finished loading up Dante for Katara to inspect with her Waterbending, an exhausted Lin climbed up Appa's saddle with the help of the Avatar of all people. Once everyone was secured, they took to the air and flew away from the island as fast as they could.

"I know jus the place for us to go for us to be safe for a while! The Western Air Temple!" shouted Aang.

Appa gave a vigorous bellow, and increased his speed.

Little did they know that they were being tailed.

**

* * *

**

**Alright, so the invasion's over. Now Dante will finish picking up his Devil Arms, and after a little character development, Vergil will finally start making his move, and the real action will start kicking in. For all those wanting more Devil May Cry elements in the story, the last few chapters should satisfy you.**

**For now though, I would love for some reviews. **


	16. Chapter 16: Duck and Cover!

Avatar: Taste the Blood

Chapter 16

**Duck and Cover!**

Oh, it's so damn good to be back! Man guys, you have no clue how stressful the last two months have been. I'm lucky I was able to find time to finish this chapter at all. School on top of bowling on top of the holidays all seemed to overlap and take my mind completely off this site. Things are still hectic, so I got lucky. I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long, but for once it really was just out of my hands.

Anyway, in my absence, I was the receiver of about...twenty or so anonymous reviews that -if the spelling skills and sentence composition are any indication- were all pretty much the same person. Look, I don't mind anonymous reviews, I've actually gotten some decent advice from them before, but when I get zerg rushed with them, and they're all either asking really irrelevant questions or asking me to update like a little kid who won't leave his big brother alone, it get's a little annoying. I apologize for taking up your time with this, but I thought I should get that out in the open.

* * *

After their defeat at the invasion on the Day of Black Sun, the beaten and disheartened gang trekked through the open flat land of the land of the Air Nomads. They were silent; no one had anything to say because there was nothing_ to_ say. They had gotten their asses kicked, plain and simple. Not only that, but they had to leave the last few allies they had behind. For now –hopefully for now- it was just a small band of teenagers, a lemur, and a bison. This was their army now. Comprised of some of the cleverest minds and most powerful and skilled warriors yes, but numbers did count for something, and it was the one thing they didn't have.

"This is humiliating," said Katara sullenly, voicing what everyone felt. They didn't exactly need a reminder, but no one could argue.

"You mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?" asked Sokka.

"Both."

"Sorry guys, but Appa gets tired carrying all these people," apologized Aang, patting Appa's still armored head.

"I wonder how the rest of the troops are," said Teo.

"They're probably on their way to a prison," answered Haru, "seems like he just got out, now he's going right back in."

The Duke sighed. "I miss pipsqueak."

"I miss not having blisters on my feet," complained Sokka.

Now, if anyone is wondering why Dante is being abnormally quiet, when normally he would be cracking jokes or amusing the gang with his antics, it was because after another thrashing from his brother and over-clocking his Devil Trigger, he was left quite drained. It wasn't nearly to the scale after the battle in Ba Sing Se, but he wasn't quite ready to walk yet, therefore he was sprawled out on top of Appa, asleep.

Suddenly Toph stopped in the lead, causing the rest of the group to look ahead.

"Hey, we're here! I can feel it!"

"Uh…I think you're feet need their eyes checked," suggested Katara. All she or anyone else besides Toph saw was a giant canyon.

"No," corrected Aang, "She's right, we are here!"

Sokka looked around to double check, but he still saw nothing.

"Wow, it's amazing," marveled Toph.

Had they not been obsessed over the temple, they might have noticed their secret pursuer roping down the cliffside.

* * *

After they ferried themselves down to the inverted temples, the gang was quick to set up shop. They had Appa land them around a main courtyard with a fountain that, even after a hundred years of neglect, was still operating and producing clear and drinkable water.

"Wow, it's so much different from the Northern Air Temple, I wonder if it has any secret rooms?" pondered Teo.

Haru jogged towards the stairs leading further across the temple. "Let's go check it out!"

Teo and The Duke were quick to follow him, and Aang was about to join them, but Katara stopped him with the aid of his own staff.

"You guys go; I think we need to talk about some things."

They complied and raced off into the temple.

"Why can't I go?" demanded Aang as soon as they were out of earshot.

"We need to decide what we're going to do now, and since you're the avatar, maybe you should be a part of this."

Aang found no use in arguing with her, so he sat himself down. "Fair enough."

Katara looked over by Appa; Lin was standing there, not really sure what to do. It occurred to the waterbender that the only person in the group she really knew was Dante, and he wasn't exactly available at the moment.

Normally, she wouldn't really trust a firebender, but over his time with the group, Dante had shown himself to be a good judge of character. He wouldn't have befriended Lin if he wasn't sure she wasn't a threat to them. That and Lin had at least gained a bit of her trust already by dragging Dante out of the volcano all by herself. Ultimately, she decided that if Lin was going to be traveling with them, then she needed to be in the loop.

"Hey, Lin, come over here! You should be a part of this to!"

She perked up at the sound of her name, and at first for a second wasn't sure whether to actually start walking or not, but made her way to the group anyway and took a seat. Katara could see that Sokka wanted to protest, him being the cautious one, but he quieted himself down for a change, remembering that he'd promised Dante to at least give her the benefit of the doubt.

With everyone short of Dante present, Aang restarted the topic. "So…what's the new plan?"

"Well if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan," suggested Sokka, "You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes."

Aang fought off a scoff. "Yeah, that's great, no problem, I'll just do that!"

"Aang, no one said it was going to be easy."

"Well, it's not even gonna be possible! Where am I supposed to get a Firebending teacher?"

At this, Lin raised her hand. "I could do it."

"There, ya see? Problem solved, you've got yourself a teacher!" exclaimed Sokka.

Lin rubbed the back of her neck. "I mean, I'm not a master or anything but-"

"Oh, really, that's too bad. Not a master Sokka, looks like we'll need to come up with something else. I'll take a nice tour around the temple to see if I can't come up with anything!"

With that, Aang was off into the air on his glider. Lin just sat there, confused as to what just happened.

"Did I…say something wrong?"

"No," replied Katara, "It's something else; don't worry about it for now. We'll talk to him later. Give whatever it is that's bugging him time to cool down."

* * *

Later, near the end of the day after everything had been settled in –including Dante, who had been moved to a nearby bedroom- the gang took to Appa to chase after Aang, who was still flying around the temple. It didn't take them long to find him; it almost seemed like Appa could sense where his partner was. They flew up close behind him so he was roughly in earshot.

"Aang, can we please talk about you learning firebending now?" called Katara.

"What, the wind is too loud in my ears!" he lied, "Check out this loop!"

He quickly did a full vertical circle in the air before returning to his original path.

"Aang, I really think we should be making some plans about our future!" argued Sokka.

The monk and bison finally came in for a landing. "Okay, we can do that while I show you the giant Pi Sho table!"

"Oh, you're gonna love the all day echo chamber!"

"I think that'll have to wait."

They all looked at Toph in confusion, but then Appa moved to the side, and beyond him stood Prince Zuko. He simply offered a small smile and raised his hand.

"Hello, Zuko here."

Everyone entered a readied battle stance, though Lin did so after a seconds hesitation. This was Prince Zuko they were looking at here, and she was still getting used to essentially being on the opposite side of the war she'd been on yesterday. It was awkward thinking of her own nation as the enemy.

"I heard you guys flying around down there so…I just thought I'd wait for you here."

Appa approached him from the side, and after a groaning roar, licked him, lifting him slightly off the ground and covering the right side of his face with bison saliva. At this Aang's stance loosened slightly. Zuko wiped it off and tried to continue the conversation.

"I know you guys must be surprised to see me here."

"Not really," spat back Sokka, "since you followed us all over the world."

The prince looked to the side, embarrassed. "Right…well, uh…anyway, what I wanted to tell you about is that I've changed, and I uh…I'm good now, and, well I think I should join your group. Oh, and I can teach firebending…uh, to you."

There was a momentary silence while everyone soaked up everything he'd just said. Lin especially found it odd that even she was feeling cautious; like she'd been part of this group the whole time. She supposed it was just the tense feelings of her new companions that were rubbing off on her.

"You wanna what now?" asked Toph incredulously.

"You can't possibly think that any of us would possibly trust you, can you? I mean, how stupid do you think we are?" shouted Katara.

Sokka jumped next. "Yeah, all you've ever done is tried to hunt us down and capture Aang."

"I've done some good things!" he argued.

"I mean, I could've stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free, that's something!"

The bison chose that time to lick him again, almost as in thanks.

"Appa does seem to like him," Toph pointed out.

"He probably just covered himself in honey or something so that Appa would like him. I'm not buying it," refuted Sokka.

Lin just chose to keep her trap shut. It seemed like the avatars group and the prince had a lot of bad blood between them, and she doubted anything she said would hold much standing. After all, she'd only jumped onto their bandwagon yesterday. She was still gaining their trust herself.

"I can understand why you wouldn't trust me, and I've made some mistakes in the past."

"Like when you attacked our village!"

"Or when you stole my mother's necklace and used it to track us down and capture us!"

Zuko fought off an exasperated sigh. "Look, I admit I've done some awful things, I was wrong to try and capture you, and I'm sorry I attacked the Water Tribe, and I never should have sent that Fire Nation assassin after you. I'm gonna try and stop-"

"Wait!" interrupted Sokka, "you sent Combustion Man after us?"

"Well, that's not his name, but…"

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to mean to insult your friend!"

"He's not my friend!"

Toph pointed an accusing finger at him. "That guy locked both me and Katara in jail and tried to blow us all up!"

Now Lin had to fight the urge to back the hell up; she was thankful that she had apparently faded from everyone's attention in all the commotion. She could tell this was going to turn violent any second now. She was right in her assumption that there was bad blood between the prince and the avatar. In fact, it would probably be better to describe it as a bad blood-bath. How far back did they go?

Zuko looked to Aang. "Why aren't you saying anything? You once said you thought we could be friends. You know I have good in me."

The young Avatar looked to the remainder of the group. Katara and Toph were keeping an eye on Zuko while Sokka shook his head adamantly.

"There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done. We'll never let you join us."

"You need to get out of here, now!" demanded Katara.

Zuko frustratedly marched towards them. "I'm trying to tell you people I'm not that person anymore!"

"Either you leave, or we attack," threatened Sokka, effectively stopping Zuko's advance.

Zuko suddenly kneeled. "If you won't accept me as a friend, then maybe you'll accept me as a prisoner."

"No we won't!" shouted Katara, before blasting him with a wave of water.

"Get out of here, and don't come back! And if we ever see you again…well, we'd better not see you again!"

Defeated and soaked, Zuko gave in and retreated with what little dignity he had left. Lin simply stood there, watching him leave; wondering if staying silent had really been a wise decision.

* * *

After Zuko had left and the last of the hours in the day were slipping by, the group discussed what had just occurred.

"Why would he try to lie like that?" asked Katara.

"Obviously he wants to lead us into some kind of trap," reasoned Sokka.

"This is just like when we were in prison together in Ba Sing Se; he starts talking about his mother and acting like he's an actual human being with feelings."

"He wants you to trust him and feel sorry for him so you let your guard down, then he strikes!"

"The thing is it worked. I did feel sorry for him; he really seemed like he was confused and hurt, but obviously when the time came he made his choice, and we paid the price. We can't trust him."

"I kinda have a confession to make," Aang spoke up.

"Remember when you to were sick and I got captured by Zhao?"

Sokka grew a scowl. "And you made us suck on frozen frogs? How could I forget? I had a wart on the flap that hangs down on the back of my throat for a month!"

"Sokka, I looked at it and told you there was nothing there!" sighed Katara.

"I could feel it!" he insisted, "It's my throat-hole flap!"

Aang decided to try and get things back on topic. "Anyway, when Zhao had me chained up, it was Zuko who came and got me out. He risked his life to save me."

"No way, I'm sure he only did it so he could capture you himself!" retorted Katara, not having any of it.

Sokka agreed. "Yeah, face it Aang, you're nothing but a big prize to him."

"You're probably right," the young avatar conceded.

"And what was all that crazy stuff about setting Appa free? What a liar!"

"Actually, he wasn't lying," corrected Toph.

"Oh hooray, in a lifetime of evil at least he didn't add animal cruelty to the list!"

"I'm just saying, considering how he was raised and his messed up family, he could have turned out a lot worse," she argued, Dante's brother coming to mind.

Katara's temper continued to flare. "You're right Toph, lets go find him and give him a medal; the "Not as Much of a Jerk as you could Have Been" award!"

"All I know is that while he was talking to us, he was sincere. Maybe you're just letting all your hurt feelings keep you from thinking clearly."

"Easy for you to say, you weren't there when he had us attacked by pirates!" she retorted.

"Or when he burned down Kyoshi island," added Sokka.

"Or when he tried to capture me at the Fire Temple!"

Katara clenched her fists. "Why would you even try to defend him?"

"Because Katara, we just got our butts handed to us at the invasion, and we need all the help we can get! Now the Prince of the Fire Nation, practically the center of their inner circle shows up, and you won't even consider letting him join us?"

"Uh, plus, he'd be a much better Firebending teacher than me," suggested Lin, finally deciding to jump into the conversation.

"I mean, he probably knows stuff I've never even thought of. Aang would learn a lot more from him than me."

Aang still seemed adamant. "I'm not learning from Zuko; anything you have to teach me will be good enough."

"Darn right, buddy," agreed Sokka.

Katara crossed her arms victoriously. "Well, I guess that's settled."

Toph clenched her teeth and growled in frustration. "I'm beginning to wonder who's really the blind one around here!"

Lin watched Toph storm off and went after her. She jogged to catch up to the younger girls' head start, and sensing her approach, Toph stopped.

"Toph," started Lin, "are you planning on doing anything about this?"

"I was mulling a few things around, why?"

"Because I want to help; I honestly think Zuko would make a better teacher than me, plus the numbers couldn't hurt either."

"Well, I was planning to snoop out Zuko to talk to him; maybe you could talk to Dante in the meantime. Ever since he joined, he's gotten pretty influential in the group; if he's got something to say, they'll listen. Tell him to talk with Katara; I guarantee she's the most dead-set against this, and he always seems to be able to cool her down."

Lin nodded. "Right, I'll head over to his room now."

"And Lin."

"What?"

"Don't tell anyone where I'm going, not even Dante. I don't need them freaking out and coming after me, it'll only cause more trouble."

"Got it."

* * *

A bit later, Dante was sitting up in his bed; try to defeat the soreness in his chest and stomach areas. Getting punched around by a pair of demonic metal gauntlets will do that to a guy. He rubbed his abdomen and sighed.

"You really shouldn't be sitting up."

Dante shot a glance at the doorway and saw Lin standing there, her arms crossed.

He shrugged. "I'm a fast healer; I'll be back in fighting shape in no time."

She shook her head and stepped further into the room.

"Well, that aside, I wanted to talk to you about some recent developments. You know about prince Zuko, right?"

"What about him?"

"He showed up here and asked to join the group; he said he'd teach Aang firebending. Toph and I both think he'd be a good asset, but the others are really against it, especially Katara."

Dante placed a hand on his chin. "Well it's not that surprisin'. She doesn't have much love for the Fire Nation, but she's sometimes able to overlook it; that's probably why she hasn't gone after you. She and Zuko though…it's a little more complicated than that; there was one point before –back when I was still new- where she thought he might change sides, but it didn't play out that way, and Aang pretty much got killed as a result. If I talk to her, I _might_ be able to convince her to let him in, but don't think for a second she's gonna go out of her way to help him."

"So you'll talk to her then?" she asked hopefully.

"You get me out of this stuffy room, and I'll see what I can do."

* * *

Outside, Katara was getting the group's dinner ready as Sokka sorted all their supplies out. They'd most likely be there a while, so they might as well get things organized. Emerging from within the temple was Lin, helping support a still weakened Dante. As they entered the open courtyard, Dante took on more weight, and slowly treaded over to the fountain, where he took a seat across from Katara.

"Dante, what are you doing out of bed? You need to rest."

He chuckled. "Katara, I've been shot, stabbed, partially frozen, blown through walls, and I haven't died yet. You think a few punches from my brother are gonna do me in?"

"You're right; I guess I'm just worrying too much."

"Well anyway," he started again, "Lin told me there was some drama a little while ago. It was something about Sir Scarsalot showin' up askin' to join the group."

Her eyes immediately narrowed. "Don't worry, we sent him packing."

"I think it's a good idea."

"What? How could you say that, he's Fire Na-"

"Don't gimmie any of that bullshit Katara, this isn't about him being Fire Nation and you know it. Otherwise you never would have let Lin in the group. Hell, you never would have trusted Piandao, or Hama, or Iroh for that matter. This is about what he did to you guys, but more importantly, this is about what he did to you."

She looked away, but her scowl remained.

"I get it; you're pissed off because he did some stupid stuff in the past, but that's not all, is it. The truth is, he made you trust him and then turned right around and burned you for it, literally."

There was another silence for a moment before Katara spoke again.

"People don't change, Dante."

"Really? Well, let me take a minute or two to prove how utterly wrong that statement was. Take Sokka for example; what was he like before you two left home?"

Katara glanced over at her brother, who was still sorting through supplies. Either he couldn't hear them talking, or he was pretending not to.

"He was kind of childish and really impulsive. He never really thought things through before doing them, and he was so obsessed with fighting the Fire Nation, I don't think he stopped to think about all the things that go with being a warrior."

"So you're saying he's still childish, impulsive, and doesn't know how to be a warrior?"

"No, it's not!"

"What is he now then?"

"Well…he's much more responsible, and he's learned to plan things out, to take the necessary steps before doing something. I mean, he planned that invasion almost single-handedly. That, and he's become a really good warrior, not just in terms of strength, but he has better judgment overall."

Dante crossed his arms victoriously and cracked a grin. "See, people do change. Maybe Zuko really did turn himself around a little in the time we haven't run into him; maybe he's not the same guy you think he is anymore. Think about it."

The white haired swords master stood up slowly from the fountain. 'Well, I'm gonna go lookin' around for the kid and the twerp, make sure they haven't killed themselves without me watchin' them like a hawk. You just mull it all over, and remember, Aang still needs to master fire, and he'd get it done a helluva lot faster if Zuko were teaching him rather than Lin."

With that, he managed to stabilize his balance and head back into the confines of the temple, leaving Katara to her thoughts.

* * *

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. The only thing out of the ordinary was that Toph was mysteriously absent. She wasn't even back by the next morning's breakfast. Dante sat eating some of the rice that Katara and Aang had prepared, and wondered where she'd wandered off to. He had a hunch; Lin had mentioned Toph when they were discussing Zuko the previous day. Knowing Toph and her straight forward approach to things, she probably went to see if she could talk to Zuko. Normally he'd be a little more concerned, but he didn't get a bad vibe from the guy for the short time he'd met him. Confused a lot for sure, but it seemed he'd overcome that somewhat. Either way, Toph would find her way back eventually.

"Has anyone seen Toph?" asked Katara.

"I haven't seen her since she stormed off yesterday," answered Sokka.

Lin was half wondering if maybe she should speak up. Toph had told her not to let anyone know where she was, but she'd been gone all night. Dante did mention that she was a bit of a tomboy and wasn't unaccustomed to going off on her own a lot, but she really didn't like the fact that she hadn't come back after sundown. Still, she could tell from everyone's attitude that they weren't too concerned, so maybe this was more normal that she was making it out to be. She'd stay quiet for now, but if she wasn't back soon she'd have to tell Dante at least.

"Maybe she's just exploring the air temple, there are some pretty fun spots to practice earthbending," suggested Haru.

Katara still didn't seem entirely convinced. "I think maybe we should look for her."

"Ah, let her have fun with her rocks," said Sokka dismissively, "I'm in no rush to have her yelling at us again."

"We can go check for her," offered The Duke.

"Yeah, we can ride that tunnel down to the hall of statues again! It'll work a lot better now that I've fixed my breaks," said Teo before popping a wheelie and pushing off, Haru and The Duke giving chase.

As soon as they left, a crash exploded in the relative silence, and a gaping hole was left in the rocky wall.

"Gee, I wonder who that is," said Dante sarcastically.

As he expected, Toph wormed her way out of the tunnel and tumbled down the small hill of rocks, grunting as she hit the floor.

"Toph, what happened?" asked Katara as she rushed over, preparing to heal any injury that may have afflicted her.

"My feet got burned!"

"Oh no, what happened?"

Now she was getting annoyed. "I just told you, my feet got burned!"

"I meant how?" Katara grumbled back.

"Well, I kind of went to go see Zuko last night…"

"You what?"

"Zuko!"

Toph was quick to defend her case. "I just thought he'd be helpful to us, and if I talked to him maybe we could work something out."

"So he attacked you?" concluded Sokka.

"Well…he did, and he didn't. It was sort of an accident."

"But he did firebend at you."

She sighed, knowing where this was going. "Yes."

"See, you trusted Zuko and you got burned; literally!"

"No Sokka, I think it was an accident," said Dante, earning him some weird looks.

"Think about it; if Zuko had meant to attack Toph on purpose, why burn her feet and then let her go? We all know without her seismic sensing, Toph couldn't navigate her way out of a box…no offense twerp."

"None taken."

"Anyway, she was a sitting duck with her feet burned like that, but he let her go. That makes me think that her being there surprised him and he attacked on reflex. I used to have the same habit; in a situation where you think you're being watched or followed, you're first reaction when something surprises you is to either run away from it or attack it. The guy just defected from his own nation, he's gotta be a little paranoid."

"Yeah," agreed Lin, "I mean, I'm here with you guys, and even I'm a little jittery. Being alone in the woods, I can see why he'd react that way."

"It'll take a while for your feet to heal," said Katara, referring to Toph, "I wish I could've worked on them sooner."

"Yeah, me to," Toph grunted.

"I still think we should go after Zuko," said Sokka.

Aang nodded. "I have to agree. I mean, what you said made a lot of sense Dante, but better safe than sorry. Zuko's been our enemy for a long time, and he's a risk we can't take."

"He's crafty, but we'll find a way to capture him."

"Maybe we can just invite him back here again," suggested Toph, "he's already offered himself as a prisoner once."

"Yeah, get him to come back and say he'll be our prisoner, and then we'll jump him and_ really_ make him our prisoner! He'll never suspect it!"

"You are a master of surprise Sokka," said Katara, sarcastically.

Only Dante and Lin held back.

"These guys are sabotaging their own mission," Dante sighed.

"They really do seem to hate Zuko. Toph said you'd be able to sway their opinions, but maybe this is something even you can't help. You did say that they'd been dealing with him from before you joined didn't you?"

He nodded. "From before Toph joined as a matter of fact, that's why she's not jumping on the anti-Zuko crusade that seems to be dividing our merry troop."

There was a silence as Katara lifted Toph into the fountain to begin healing her feet.

"Well, I guess one more shot couldn't hurt," he said, and headed towards everyone else. Lin followed, prepared to aid in the discussion if need be. The discussion never took place however, because about halfway there, a massive explosion suddenly rocked the temple courtyard. It seemed to be pure luck the blast hadn't damaged any of the support columns, or the platform would have collapse right into the canyon below.

Dante looked around and spotted Combustion Man on the platform across from their and at least one level up, giving him a good vantage point. The strange thing was, he wasn't alone; there was another figure up there with him. After he focused a bit more, he could see it was Zuko, and he seemed to be trying to stop the attack at that. Of course, Combustion Man was about twice his size and weight, so it was pretty easy for him to toss Zuko aside. He fired another blast and blew away the top of the fountain; a close call, but the platform was still in one piece.

Another blast came shortly after that, but a timely intervention on Zuko's part prevented a direct hit. Tired of the interruptions, Combustion Man turned his attention on the former prince, and blew him clear off the side of the platform. Dante acted quickly and summoned Cerberus. With a flick of his wrist, one of the prongs extended and flew out to meet Zuko. Luckily, he noticed it and made a grab for it, which was successful. With the prince secured for the moment, Dante began slowly retracting it as the chain swayed over the canyon below. He hoped Zuko could hold on until he pulled him all the way up. He also hoped the pillar he was taking cover behind held up to keep him from being blasted away.

With the distraction Zuko had caused though, Aang was able to jump into the air, and send a tornado whirling through the air in an attempt to force Combustion Man off the edge as well. He simply leaped over it, and plummeted towards a lower level, which he was able to grab hold of, but he stone gave way, causing him to fall yet another level. He quickly rolled and recovered, firing another blast.

Now Katara and Lin both decided to retaliate, Katara manipulating the water of the fountain and sending it over to Combustion Man's position while Lin covered her by bombarding him with fire blasts. They did him little harm, but they kept him from accurately taking aim at the advancing water, and that's all the fellow female bender needed. With a violent stroke of her arms, she converted the water into deadly ice shards and fired them down on him. His metal limbs were sufficient shielding to ward off any fatal attacks, and he remained unharmed.

Thanks to his diverted attention though, the gang –save for Dante- was now safely behind the thick stone wall on the other end of the courtyard. Dante was still behind the pillar closest to the edge, trying to pull Zuko back up. Another explosion rocked the stone platform, and Dante almost lost grip of Cerberus.

"This guy's really started to piss me off," he growled.

Over on the other end, Katara peeked around the corner as another explosion hit.

"I can't get out there to waterbend at him without getting blown up, and I can't get a good enough angle on him from down here!"

Sokka stood in intense thought for a moment before an idea struck him. "I know how to get an angle on him!"

He nudged Katara behind him so he could take her former position, and peeked around the corner, boomerang in hand. He watched carefully as the explosive blasts struck the ground, and mentally estimated their point of origin based on their angles. Once he was relatively certain of his calculations, he lifted his trusty weapon.

"All right buddy, don't fail me now!"

He threw it.

It whirled through the air and out of sight. It was but a blue blur that flew up and over to the next platform, and just as Sokka had predicted, struck Combustion Man upside the head. Excited over his victory, he leaped into the air and caught his boomerang with a triumphant shout.

His victory seemed short lived though, as Combustion Man simply shook off the blow and stood right back up. The gang made a run back for cover as he prepared to fire again. As fate would have it though, Sokka's blow had disrupted his flow of energy, and caused the blast to once again backfire on itself, exploding the platform he was on, as well as himself.

As he plummeted down the canyon, everyone –again, save for Dante- peered over the edge to watch as the last glimpse of the structure faded away.

"Well, that was excitin'," said Dante, causing everyone to turn to him. He was still leaning over the edge, but was rising back up as he pulled Zuko from over the edge onto the courtyard. With his work done, he turned to the fallen prince and grinned.

"Nice to see ya again Scarsalot," panted Dante, tired out from all the physical activity when he was supposed to be healing.

Aang wasn't sure what to say for a moment before he finally sucked it up and admitted it. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks Zuko."

"Hey, what about me, I did the boomerang thing?" boasted Sokka.

"Listen…I know I didn't explain myself yesterday, I've been through a lot in the past few years. It's been hard, but I'm realizing I had to go through all those things to learn the truth. I thought I had lost my honor, and that somehow my father could return it to me, but I know now that no one can give you your honor, it's something you earn for yourself, by choosing to do what's right. All I want now is to play my part in ending this war, and I know my destiny is to help you restore balance to the world."

Aang was silent, and Zuko turned to Toph and bowed. "I'm sorry for what I did to you, it was an accident. Fire can be dangerous and wild, so as a firebender, I need to be more careful and control my bending so I don't hurt people unintentionally."

Then Aang said something that surprised Sokka and Katara. "I think you are supposed to be my firebending teacher. When I first tried to learn firebending, I burned Katara. After that, I never wanted to firebend again. But now I know you understand how easy it is to hurt the people you love."

The young avatar bowed to him. "I'd like you to teach me."

Zuko smiled and returned the bow. "Thank you. I'm so happy you accepted me into your group."

"Not so fast, I still have to ask my friends if it's okay with them."

First he turned to Toph. "Toph, you're the one that Zuko burned. What do you think?"

She shrugged. "Go ahead and let him join, it'll gimmie plenty of time to pay him back for burning my feet."

He turned again. "Sokka?"

"Hey, all I want is to defeat the Fire lord, if you think this is the way to do it, then I'm all for it."

He turned around. "Dante, Lin, what do you two think?"

Dante shrugged. "Couldn't hurt, I say let Squinty join."

"I think Aang and I both would benefit from him being here, so I say yes," agreed Lin.

Now it was the moment of truth. "Katara?"

She glared at Zuko, but couldn't help but glance at Dante for a split second. Something about what he said was eating at the back of her mind -though she wouldn't admit it- and she knew that she was outvoted anyway, so she conceded in the end.

"I'll go along with whatever you think is right."

Zuko smiled again. "I won't let you down, I promise!"

With that, the gang dispersed.

* * *

Some time later, Sokka lead Zuko to his room at the temple. He had to admit, it was a really awkward feeling walking around with their oldest enemy and not have to worry about him stabbing him in the back…very much. They both stopped as they came up to the threshold separating the hall from the room.

"So, here you go, home sweet home, I guess, ya know, for now. Unpack…lunch soon. Uh…welcome aboard?"

Zuko merely grinned and nodded, which for some reason made Sokka even more uncomfortable. Since when did Zuko smile?

As he left, Aang was waiting outside. "Okay, this is really, really weird."

Without saying anything else, the two left.

Zuko quietly unpacked, when suddenly he felt a sensation similar to a wild animal sensing a predator glaring at it. He turned around and saw Katara leaning in the doorway.

"You might have everyone else buying your…transformation, but you and I both know you've struggled with doing the right thing in the past. So let me tell you something right now, if you take one step backwards, one slip-up, one good reason for me to think you might hurt Aang, and you won't have to worry about your destiny anymore, because I'll make sure your destiny ends, right then and there. Permanently."

With that, she left, slamming the door on her way out. Once outside, she was met with Dante leaning against the wall. He wasn't looking at her, but she knew he had been waiting.

"So," he started, Katara already sensing the sarcasm, "glad to see our talk sunk in. Death threats seem a little dark for you, regardless if it's Zuko or not."

"Don't start with me Dante."

"Don't worry; I plan on making this quick. Since we're on the subject of making things perfectly clear to people, let me make something clear to you. I get that you don't like Zuko, it's understandable, I don't even trust him completely, but I'm not gonna let your paranoia run wild. Just know that you might have your eyes on Zuko, but I'll have my eyes on you. If he tries something, we'll deal with it, but don't just do anything you want all on your own because he hurt your feelings. That's a crappy excuse and you know it. You're one of my best friends Katara, and I really don't wanna have to say this, but if you do anything stupid, don't think I won't be there to stop you. For now, Zuko's on our side, so cool it."

Once he was finished, he pushed off the wall and turned the corner, disappearing from her sight. She half wanted to go after him just to argue more, but she dismissed it, and instead headed the opposite direction towards her room.

**

* * *

Alright, I hope that was sufficient after my long absence. I personally think I could have gotten Lin some more lines, but it's my first chapter with her as actually part of the group, so I need to get used to her being around. I had the same problem with Dante and Vergil at first, so just give me some time and it should get better.**

**One last thing I'd like to address before I go is this: I'd really like to see some more DMC/Avatar crossovers besides mine. I'm sure somebody's got some ideas. Seriously, so far the only crossovers that Avatar's been getting in mass is Naruto, and there aren't even a lot of those around. Just think about it, and maybe PM me if you've got a brainstorm. I'd love to hear about it. **

**Anyway, I'll see ya'll next time, which is hopefully pretty soon.**


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